Former Ambassador Resigns in Protest of Dept's Treatment of Gays

Michael Guest, the US ambassador to Romania from 2000 to 2004 has quit the state department after 26 years of foreign service in his frustration over the department's treatment of its gay workers.

After returning from Romania in 2004, Guest trained new ambassadors before they headed out for service. He has also spent that time appealing to Secratary of State Condoleeza Rice for better conditions for gay and lesbian agents and ambassadors. At the heart of his complaints were the treatment the same sex partners of employees. He won an award in 2006 from the AFSA for his work.

Same sex partners cannot get diplomatic visas or passports, have to pay their own way to the country in which their partner is serving, they must pay thier own medical care, are not provided with any security, they get no housing allowence to stay at home, and have no access to evacuation services in times of crisis; they cannot even use the department's mail system. Spouses get all of these benefits. The State Department pays for the family pets, however, to join their masters in their locations, and ensures their evacuation. Gay spouses, then, rank lower than pets in the eyes of the department, it seems.

There rules are not laws enacted by congress, but are simply traditions of the department that could be changed by a memo from Rice. In response to the complaints by Guest, department spokesperson, Pat Kennedy, said "The secretary and the State Department do not discriminate on hirings or promotions." However, Rice was grilled several months ago about why she was complaining about the lack of Arabic and Farsi linguists but had failed to hire those who had been dismissed from the military for being gay.