Obama to extend some benefits to gay partners of federal employees
John Berry, director of the White House Office of Personnel Management and the highest-ranking gay member of the administration, called the move “long overdue progress in our nation’s journey to equality.”
The setting will cast an especially bright light on the president’s action, but many expressed disappointment that the president was not taking bolder steps, particularly in the area of healthcare benefits.
“This is not enough. I want to be able to add my wife to my policy in the same way that every other federal employee can add their spouse to their policy,” said Kate Kuykendall , a federal worker Los Angeles. She noted that the federal government is the only employer exempt from a California law that requires companies to extend benefits to same-sex partners.
Berry said Obama’s move would allow employees’ domestic partners to be added to the government’s long-term insurance program, which covers such illnesses as Alzheimer’s disease. The memorandum also would allow employees to use sick leave to take care of domestic partners and children, and would let the same-sex partners of diplomats use medical facilities at foreign posts.
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Obama to extend some benefits to gay partners of federal employees
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Gay US diplomats to get benefits for partners
In a policy shift, the US State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, The New York Times reported.
The newspaper said the shift was spelled out in an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent last week to an association of gay and lesbian foreign service officers.
Clinton said the policy change addressed an inequity in the treatment of domestic partners and would help the State Department recruit diplomats, since many international employers already offered such benefits, the report said.
“Like all families, our foreign service families come in different configurations; all are part of the common fabric of our post communities abroad,” Clinton said in the memorandum, a copy of which was provided to The Times by a member of the gay and lesbian association.
“At bottom,” the paper quotes Clinton as saying, “the department will provide these benefits for both opposite-sex and same-sex partners because it is the right thing to do.”
A senior State Department official confirmed the new policy, but did not say when it would take effect, the paper said.
Gay US diplomats to get benefits for partners: report
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House adds same-sex benefits provision for U.S. diplomats to budget proposal
Congress has inserted a provision into the State Department authorization budget that would require the State Department to confer the same benefits to same-sex partners as it does to married couples.
Congressman Howard Berman, Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, included the provision in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 (H.R. 2410) to “end the long-standing practice of excluding the committed partners of Foreign Service officers from the benefits routinely provided to the spouses and children of officers serving abroad.” The provision now must make its way through the budget process, including the conference committee where many-a-well intentioned proposal hits the chopping block. But in this case, it would be hard to imagine that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is lead by Chairman John Kerry and the moderate republic ranking member Richard Lugar, would do anything to strip out this provision.
This would be progress. For too long, gay and lesbian diplomats have had to chose between their families and their service. “I’m happy that efforts to redress these discriminatory policies are being undertaken,” emails Michael Guest a former Foreign Service officer currently affiliated with the Center for Global Equality. “This is all about ensuring the safety, effectiveness and equal workplace conditions for those who serve our country abroad, and for the families who accompany them on those assignments.” Amen!
House adds same-sex benefits provision for U.S. diplomats to budget proposal
UN Dispatch (5/15) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/house-adds-sa…
Clinton gives hope to gay diplomats
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised gay diplomats Wednesday to work toward securing better rights and benefits for them and their partners, whose treatment is now much worse than that of married straight couples.
During her first town hall meeting with State Department employees since taking office two weeks ago, Mrs. Clinton pledged to look for ways to provide “training, benefits and protections” to same-sex partners who accompany Foreign Service officers to overseas posts.
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