Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies
Encyclopedia
Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) is the officially recognized organization representing lesbian
, gay
, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT
) personnel and their families in the United States Department of State
, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
, Foreign Commercial Service
, Foreign Agricultural Service
, and other agencies and entities working in foreign affairs
in the U.S. Government. GLIFAA was founded in 1992 by fewer than a dozen employees who faced official harassment and potential loss of their jobs simply because of their sexual orientation
. The organization grew to hundreds of Foreign Service
, Civil Service
, and contract personnel and their families serving in Washington
, throughout the U.S., and at U.S. embassies and missions
around the world.
Among other accomplishments, GLIFAA succeeded in pressing for the issuance of a non-discrimination policy by Secretary of State Warren Christopher
in 1993, and worked with the U.S. Administration
, the management of government agencies, and other employee associations to eliminate barriers for obtaining security clearance
s and create and implement non-discrimination policies with regard to entry and employment in the U.S. Foreign Service and Civil Service. In addition, the organization worked to improve the situation for the partners of LGBT U.S. Foreign Service personnel serving overseas. GLIFAA met with Secretaries of State Colin Powell
, Condoleezza Rice
, and Hillary Clinton.
was grounds for exclusion from the U.S. Foreign Service (diplomatic corps) and many positions in the Civil Service. Numerous individuals were dismissed from their positions in the State Department and in the U.S. government because of their sexual orientation. This happened particularly in the 1950s and 60's, during what has been called the "Lavender Scare
" against sexual minorities in the U.S. government, linked to the McCarthy
-inspired campaign against perceived communist sympathizers.
The first publicly gay U.S. ambassador
was Ambassador to Luxembourg
James Hormel
, who was appointed by President Clinton
and sworn in by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
in 1999. Hormel was admitted into his position through a recess appointment
, without confirmation of the U.S. Senate. The second publicly gay U.S. ambassador, and the first publicly gay Foreign Service officer to be appointed as ambassador, was U.S. Ambassador to Romania
Michael Guest
, who was appointed by President George W. Bush
and in 2001 sworn in by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Bush also appointed publicly gay physician Mark R. Dybul
as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, with the rank of ambassador. In December 2009, Vice President Joseph Biden swore in publicly gay lawyer David Huebner
, as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand
and the Independent State of Samoa
.
, which sharply curtails the ability of the U.S. federal government to assist LGBT families in some ways. In May 2009, an internal State Department memo extended a number of benefits to the same-sex partners of American diplomats, including diplomatic passports, use of medical facilities at overseas posts, medical and other emergency evacuation, transportation between posts, and training in security and languages. In June 2009, President Obama signed a memorandum announcing these and number of other benefits for same-sex partners of government workers. Many of the new benefits had come from GLIFAA's initial proposals.
GLIFAA has held numerous events in Washington and at U.S. embassies around the world. For example, in July 2005 GLIFAA members held a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Speakers at GLIFAA events in Washington have included openly gay Congressman Jim Kolbe
, openly Lesbian congresswoman Tammy Baldwin
and Judy Shepard
, mother of slain gay student Matthew Shepard
. In June 2010, Secretary of State Clinton and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
spoke at a GLIFAA-sponsored event at the main State Department
building on the topic of "LGBT Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy." At the event, Secretary Clinton stated that the U.S. government would take a more assertive role in protecting the rights of LGBT people and communities around the world.
In October 2009, GLIFAA won the 2009 Out and Equal Workplace Award for its advocacy efforts. Secretary of State Clinton videotaped a congratulatory message that was shown at the conference where the award was given.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
(LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
) personnel and their families in the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...
, Foreign Commercial Service
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
, Foreign Agricultural Service
Foreign Agricultural Service
The Foreign Agricultural Service is the foreign affairs agency with primary responsibility for the United States Department of Agriculture's overseas programs—market development, international trade agreements and negotiations, and the collection of statistics and market information...
, and other agencies and entities working in foreign affairs
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
in the U.S. Government. GLIFAA was founded in 1992 by fewer than a dozen employees who faced official harassment and potential loss of their jobs simply because of their sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
. The organization grew to hundreds of Foreign Service
United States Foreign Service
The United States Foreign Service is a component of the United States federal government under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of approximately 11,500 professionals carrying out the foreign policy of the United States and aiding U.S...
, Civil Service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
, and contract personnel and their families serving in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, throughout the U.S., and at U.S. embassies and missions
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
around the world.
Among other accomplishments, GLIFAA succeeded in pressing for the issuance of a non-discrimination policy by Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Warren Christopher
Warren Minor Christopher was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician. During Bill Clinton's first term as President, Christopher served as the 63rd Secretary of State. He also served as Deputy Attorney General in the Lyndon Johnson administration, and as Deputy Secretary of State in the Jimmy...
in 1993, and worked with the U.S. Administration
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, the management of government agencies, and other employee associations to eliminate barriers for obtaining security clearance
Security clearance
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, i.e., state secrets, or to restricted areas after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal...
s and create and implement non-discrimination policies with regard to entry and employment in the U.S. Foreign Service and Civil Service. In addition, the organization worked to improve the situation for the partners of LGBT U.S. Foreign Service personnel serving overseas. GLIFAA met with Secretaries of State Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, and Hillary Clinton.
History of LGBT Americans in Diplomacy
Prior to the early 1990s, homosexualityHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
was grounds for exclusion from the U.S. Foreign Service (diplomatic corps) and many positions in the Civil Service. Numerous individuals were dismissed from their positions in the State Department and in the U.S. government because of their sexual orientation. This happened particularly in the 1950s and 60's, during what has been called the "Lavender Scare
Lavender scare
The Lavender Scare refers to the fear and persecution of homosexuals in the 1950s in the United States, which paralleled the anti-communist campaign known as McCarthyism....
" against sexual minorities in the U.S. government, linked to the McCarthy
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
-inspired campaign against perceived communist sympathizers.
The first publicly gay U.S. ambassador
Ambassadors from the United States
This is a list of ambassadors of the United States to individual nations of the world, to international organizations, to past nations, and ambassadors-at-large.Ambassadors are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate...
was Ambassador to Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
James Hormel
James Hormel
James Catherwood Hormel is an American philanthropist and grandson of George A. Hormel, founder of Hormel Foods .-Early years:Hormel was born in Austin, Minnesota. He earned a B.A...
, who was appointed by President Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and sworn in by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...
in 1999. Hormel was admitted into his position through a recess appointment
Recess appointment
A recess appointment is the appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official while the U.S. Senate is in recess. The U.S. Constitution requires that the most senior federal officers must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming office, but while the Senate is in...
, without confirmation of the U.S. Senate. The second publicly gay U.S. ambassador, and the first publicly gay Foreign Service officer to be appointed as ambassador, was U.S. Ambassador to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
Michael Guest
Michael Guest
Michael E. Guest was the U.S. Ambassador to Romania, appointed by President George W. Bush. Guest was sworn in by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on September 18, 2001 and took up his duties on September 24, 2001...
, who was appointed by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and in 2001 sworn in by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Bush also appointed publicly gay physician Mark R. Dybul
Mark R. Dybul
Ambassador Mark R. Dybul served as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, leading the implementation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief during the presidency of George W. Bush.-Biography:...
as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, with the rank of ambassador. In December 2009, Vice President Joseph Biden swore in publicly gay lawyer David Huebner
David Huebner
David Huebner is the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He previously was an American lawyer based in Shanghai, where he specialized in international arbitration and mediation for the Los Angeles-based law firm, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton...
, as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and the Independent State of Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
.
GLIFAA'S Advocacy and Efforts
In January 2009, GLIFAA handed to Secretary of State Clinton a letter signed by 2200 foreign affairs employees requesting that a number of key benefits be extended to same-sex domestic partners of LGBT personnel at the State Department and other foreign affairs agencies. The organization noted that these were benefits that could be accorded without violating the Defense of Marriage ActDefense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act is a United States federal law whereby the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, no U.S. state may be required to recognize as a marriage a same-sex relationship considered a marriage in another state...
, which sharply curtails the ability of the U.S. federal government to assist LGBT families in some ways. In May 2009, an internal State Department memo extended a number of benefits to the same-sex partners of American diplomats, including diplomatic passports, use of medical facilities at overseas posts, medical and other emergency evacuation, transportation between posts, and training in security and languages. In June 2009, President Obama signed a memorandum announcing these and number of other benefits for same-sex partners of government workers. Many of the new benefits had come from GLIFAA's initial proposals.
GLIFAA has held numerous events in Washington and at U.S. embassies around the world. For example, in July 2005 GLIFAA members held a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Speakers at GLIFAA events in Washington have included openly gay Congressman Jim Kolbe
Jim Kolbe
James Thomas "Jim" Kolbe is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for Arizona's 8th congressional district, serving 11 terms from 1985 to 2007.-Early life:...
, openly Lesbian congresswoman Tammy Baldwin
Tammy Baldwin
Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin is the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district, serving since 1999. She is a member of the Democratic Party. In September 2011, Baldwin announced she would be a candidate in the 2012 U.S...
and Judy Shepard
Judy Shepard
Judy Shepard is the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at University of Wyoming who was murdered in October 1998...
, mother of slain gay student Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998...
. In June 2010, Secretary of State Clinton and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
Rajiv Shah
Rajiv “Raj” Shah is the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development . He was confirmed by the Senate on December 24, 2009, replacing acting chief Alonzo Fulgham, making him the highest-ranking Indian American in any presidential administration...
spoke at a GLIFAA-sponsored event at the main State Department
Harry S Truman Building
The Harry S. Truman Building is the headquarters of the United States Department of State. It is located in the national capital of Washington, D.C.....
building on the topic of "LGBT Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy." At the event, Secretary Clinton stated that the U.S. government would take a more assertive role in protecting the rights of LGBT people and communities around the world.
In October 2009, GLIFAA won the 2009 Out and Equal Workplace Award for its advocacy efforts. Secretary of State Clinton videotaped a congratulatory message that was shown at the conference where the award was given.
See also
- LGBT rights in United States
- List of LGBT rights organizations