• He encouraged GLIFAA to continue outside stakeholder conversations with NGOs and the Hill.  He encouraged GLIFAA's platform to say that State has the legal flexibility to do X, Y, and Z, and State ought to follow through on X, Y, and Z.  The ultimate question is whether State feels it has the policy/political green light from current Administration or that of the President-Elect. 
  
• U/S Kennedy encouraged GLIFAA to note that the Foreign Service Act does not define EFM.  He urged GLIFAA to stay focused on the key goal of redefining EFM to include MOH
  
• Michelle and I expressed concern that Transition Teams at other Agencies are not including diversity, LGBT issues, or MOHs issues robustly. 

We presented U/S Kennedy our transition papers, and he provided us with some feedback:

• U/S Kennedy said he will talk with AA/M at USAID regarding updating the non-discrimination clause in grants and contracts to include sexual orientation and gender identity.  Will also talk at State about PD grants, Fulbright grants, Ambassador small grants
  
• He recommended that the transition paper and cover memo highlight the members of Congress who wrote to the Secretary (for example, Berman is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Ros-Lehtinen is the Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Ackerman is a member of the full Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia that is a key panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee). We have since incorporated those suggestions into the documents that will be given to the transition team. 

U/S Kennedy also responded to GLIFAA's one page position paper: 

• On badges/IDs, he asked that GLIFAA provide examples of countries to him and his special assistant Kerri O'Connor where members are not getting ID badges.  He said he has spoken with DS A/S Eric Boswell and PDAS Greg Starr and been assured that all MOHs receive yellow badges.  He took GLIFAA's suggestion of an ALDAC on ID badges and family support groups
• We apprised U/S Kennedy that MOHs are able to get Rosetta Stone only on a space available basis.  [Note: after the meeting with U/S Kennedy, we learned from a USAID DLI that her partner was told "no" for FAST language training and we are following up with DG Thomas on that issue.] 
• We told U/S Kennedy that we consider full language courses and the separation course to be security issues, and he concurred that one good way to bring about change was to point out the security issues created by the current system. 
• On FEHBA, he will look at the options.  

U/S Kennedy said he thought that GLIFAA's letter writing campaign was a good idea, but he recommended that we re-write the section on pets.  He said that there is no pet allowance, only a foreign transfer allowance.  He felt that the pet focus makes the Department look stupid and diverts the reader from the real issue - that EFM needs to be amended to include partners.  He said we should simply note "miscellaneous expenses" rather than a specific focus on pets. [Note: we took his concerns into consideration and re-worded our transition papers to read that the Department will reimburse for a variety of moving related expenses, including the transport of the family pet, but not the transport of a same-sex partner. We forwarded these changes to U/S Kennedy and have not yet received a response. However, a majority of the board felt it was important to leave the line in about pets, at least in this form, because it points out the extreme inequities our partners face.]
 
On other issues, GLIFAA requested a liaison with State's Legal Office (L) to serve as a neutral person to provide guidance on legal questions as they arise. U/S Kennedy said thought the idea was a good one and that he would work with L's Jim Thesson to identify a liaison to work with GLIFAA.  U/S Kennedy also took GLIFAA's suggestion of reissuing an ALDAC with the Berlin and Manila policies and heard GLIFAA's idea of advertising TDYs and funding TDYs - Creating Change, Out and Equal, UCLA Leadership Institute.
 
Following the meeting, we spoke with M's special assistant Kerry O'Connor, who concurred that a follow up meeting in mid-December would be a good idea.  We plan to follow up with DG Thomas in December as well, as part of GLIFAA's quarterly meetings with the DG.

We've also continued full steam ahead with very key, substantive organizational issues as the current board is committed to institutional history and legacy.  Our Intern, Joshua Jones, not only has been doing a terrific job in organizing outreach events like the AIDS Walk and our Holiday Party, but he has been steadily archiving all of our documents.  Please send any key GLIFAA documents you have, since our inception in 1992 (or earlier) to Joshua Jones.  The Policy Director and Treasurer have also been working with the law firm Sidley to see how GLIFAA could become a tax exempt organization and what that status may entail in terms of our future level of effort.  The entire board has also redrafted GLIFAA's by-laws and has submitted them to Sidley for their review as we consider incorporating as a tax exempt organization.

Policy Director Meets with Nepal LGBT Official

GLIFAA Policy Director included an LGBT outreach visit as part of his recent official TDY to Nepal.  He met with Sunil Pant, the first openly gay member of the Nepali Parliament.  He was briefed on work of the Blue Diamond Society including their recent success in ensuring that the Nepali Supreme court ruled favorably on the need for establishing a committee to look at the possibility of same sex marriage and a constitution that is inclusive sexual orientation and gender identity.  Mr. Pant followed up with a meeting at USAID where he had the chance to meet with the Office of Democracy and Governance and the Office for South and Central Asia, during his recent visit to the US.  Pant was in the US for 24th International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference where he delivered the keynote address entitled "LGBT Issues in Global Human Rights: Can the U. S. Help?"