Making a statement

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will this week announce new rules for the department, treating same-sex and opposite-sex couples in the foreign service the same. It continues a trend we’ve seen a lot lately.

Under the old rules, same-sex partners of diplomats were treated worse than a family pet, as 26-year diplomatic veteran Michael Guest put it. He quit Bush’s State Department because he was being forced to choose between his partner—his family—and service to his country. His family won.

In practice, this meant that the State Department didn’t provide any support for same-sex partners of diplomats, such as no payment for moving costs, no anti-terrorism personal security training, no evacuation if there was a security emergency or for medical reasons.

Part of the problem has been that the infamous “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) makes it illegal for any part of the federal government to treat same-sex couples the same as married couples. The State Department will get around that by extending identical benefits to opposite-sex unmarried couples, too.

Still, the christianist right will scream about this. In the comments, to the above-linked article, it would appear that many can’t read, asking if opposite-sex couples would also be covered (it clearly says they will be) or else it would be discrimination! Many were also unable to stay on topic, bringing in the usual irrelevant religious nonsense, as they always do, and preaching bizarre theories, such as that this policy will lead to a mass gay takeover of the diplomatic service.

What this represents is further incremental change, similar to others we’ve seen lately. The comments represent what’s holding back change in the US. I’ll be commenting further on all that, soon. For now, though, well done Hillary, and another example of how very different and better the Obama Administration is than its predecessor.

Tip o’ the hat to Nancy in Japan for the story I linked to.