Sec’y of State to Announce Equal Benefits for Gay Employees

Sec'y Clinton on her first day at the State Dept. in January, 2009

I blogged about this last week, here, and it would seem that the announcement must be coming very soon, at least according to today’s press report:

“WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that gay American diplomats will be given benefits similar to those that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, U.S. officials said Saturday.

In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, Clinton says regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the same rights and privileges that straight diplomats enjoyed are “unfair and must end,” as they harm U.S. diplomacy.

“Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our posts abroad,” she says in the message, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

“It will also help the department attract and retain personnel in a competitive environment where domestic partner benefits and allowances are increasingly the norm for world-class employers,” she says.

“At bottom, the department will provide these benefits for both opposite-sex and same-sex domestic partners because it is the right thing to do,” Clinton says.

Secretary Clinton should be given tremendous credit for not only having the courage to make this an early priority, but also for moving so quickly on this, particularly given that g/l/b State Dept. employees under Condi Rice reportedly requested countless times that the State Dept.’s policies regarding gay/lesbian employees be reviewed and ultimately changed, to no avail. Not exactly a big surprise there.

So props to Secretary Clinton.