Look at President Obama's Plans for honoring his commitment to the LGBT community!
Whitehouse.gov features a section under "Civil Rights" on "Support to the LGBT Community."
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Greetings!
Thanks for your suport the GLIFAA letter campaign. The Secretary received the letter last Monday, January 26th. We also understand Representative Tammy Baldwin has followed up with a letter to the new Secretary!
Find out more at our General Membership Meeting open to all interested parties this Thursday, February 5th at the Thai Place in Foggy Bottom.
More events and information below!
-The GLIFAA Board
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Upcoming Events
THIS THURSDAY! - GLIFAA's General Membership Meeting
Join GLIFAA members, affiliates, and friends for food and drinks for Thai food as well as to plan this years steps to continue the fight for LGBT equality in foreign affairs agencies!
The Thai Place
2134 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Upstairs Dining Room
Metro: Foggy Bottom
Thursday, February 5, 2009
6:00pm - 8:00pm
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Fletcher School/GLIFAA Happy Hour
All are welcome as we meet LGBT students of International Affairs
Join GLIFAA members, affiliates, and friends for food and drinks for drinks as we welcome LGBT students from Tuft's Fletcher LGBT group to DC!
Hope to see Fletcher alumni there as well!
Tonic
2036 G Street
(GW Campus)
Metro: Foggy Bottom
Friday, February 13, 2009 5:30 pm-8:00 pm
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GLASS Happy Hour at Lounge 201
Join our friends on the Hill for drinks!
Lounge 201
201 Massachusetts Ave NE
Metro: Union Station
Thursday, February 12, 2008
6:00pm - 8:00pm
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Transgender Briefing at University of Maryland
GLIFAA member Chloe Schwenke found a great event for people to attend! Dr. Joy Ladin will be speaking at the University of Maryland, College Park on Friday, February 13, 2009 at 12:30pm in Benjamin 1107. In 2006, when she announced that she was transgender and transitioning to become a woman, Yeshiva University suspended her. She has since returned through legal proceedings. Upon her return there has been hate speech against her from fellow faculty as well as students.
University of Maryland
Benjamin 1107
Metro: College Park - University of Maryland
Friday, February 13, 2008
12:30pm |
GLIFAA News Update!
From the Policy Director, Ajit Joshi
December and January have been a whirlwind of activity for GLIFAA. We've been extraordinarily busy, following the heels of much of our strong work during 2008. We didn't stop with the joint AFSA-GLIFAA letter on DPBO or training the newest crop of foreign service officers at USAID, or even with briefing the transition teams at State and USAID for our transition package, also posted at the FedGlobe website along with our power point presentation and field guide for MOHs! We submitted our letter to Secretary Clinton, garnering close to 2,200 signatures, and got quite a bit of press coverage including from the Washington Post (see news clips below). Michelle and Ajit send a HUGE thanks to Selim Ariturk for his work on this project! As Post Representative, he has been a very active and valued member of the GLIFAA team. The letter to Clinton would not have happened without Selim's unflagging commitment, perseverance, and motivation. We are indebted for his efforts.
On 2 February, Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Senators Russ Feingold and Ron Wyden sent Secretary Clinton a letter following up on questions posed by Sen. Feingold during Secretary Clinton's confirmation hearing last month, and also questions submitted for the record to incoming Deputy Assistant Secretary (Management & Resources) Jack Lew by Senator Robert Casey.
In their letter, the Members said "The lack of equitable treatment could force dedicated, intelligent, and needed FSOs (Foreign Service Officers) and officials to make an unfortunate choice between serving their country and protecting their families. As you noted during the question and answer session of your Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing, many other nations now extend training, protection, and benefits to the partners of LGBT employees. Further, the State Department's past inattention to these disparities places it below parity with the best employment practices used in the private sector, where the majority of Fortune 500 companies extend employee benefit programs to cover the domestic partners. Without remedying these inequities, the State Department may fail to attract and retain qualified personnel."
Baldwin and her colleagues asked Secretary Clinton to institute, among other things, the following changes in State Department policy regarding Foreign Service Officers (FSOs):
- Inclusion in travel orders for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
- Access to training, including all language classes, area studies, and embassy effectiveness classes for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
- Emergency evacuation and medevac from post when necessary for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
- Access to post health units for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
- Visa support for same-sex domestic partners accompanying FSOs to overseas postings, and for same-sex foreign-born domestic partners accompanying FSOs to postings in Washington or elsewhere in the U.S.
- Preferential status for employment at post comparable to that enjoyed by Eligible Family Members (EFMs) for same-sex domestic partners of FSOs
GLIFAA's expertise in LGBT workplace issues is getting attention following GLIFAA's participation at the January 8 FedGlobe meeting. FedGlobe has posted three of GLIFAA's key transition materials on their website for LGBT groups in federal agencies to peruse. GLIFAA is sharing best practices with other federal agencies and provided some specific coaching and mentoring to a representative of Department of Transportation's LGBT group. Sister organizations, like HUD, and EPA, have also done a good job in their transition materials. Also, GLIFAA thanks Ryan Derni and Jack Davis for passing the letter to the front office of Peace Corps. GLIFAA thanks Jeff Dutton, Daniel Shaw, and William Isasi for their efforts at Commerce. GLIFAA is also pleased to provide capacity building assistance to Commerce GLOBE as they revive their organization in the new Administration. DOJ also wrote a letter on gender identity. take a look at the US Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) Draft Strategic Plan, which includes on page three of the reads under "Guiding Principles" that "EAC is committed to: "Performance and public service without regard to race, sex, religion, national origin, age, special needs, sexual orientation, gender identification, or political affiliation in everything it does." We remain hopeful that OPM will have a fair-minded director and will follow that closely. |
GLIFAA in the News!
Clinton Letter gets lots of coverage!
Washington Post Article -- Foreign Policy Workers Ask U.S. To Back Benefits for Gay Partners
Washington Blade Article -- Gov't Workers as Clinton for Policy Change
Advocate Article -- LGBT Group Lobbies Clinton for Equal Treatment at State Dept.
Online Blogs:
Pam's House Blend
HRC Backstory
America Blog
Undiplomatic |
Joint the AFSA Board!
The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) needs you!
GLIFAA extends an invitation to all to be a nominee for the AFSA governing board. Nominations are due the 25th of February.
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LGBT Foreign Affairs Lunch Groups!
- A-100 LGBT Lunch @ the Foreign Service Institute - New employees contact Andy Ball (BallAj@state.gov) Students and FSI employees welcome too!
- At USAID - Contact Rebecca Maestri (rmaestri@usaid.gov) to get on the "lunch bunch list."
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GLIFAA Children?
We need your help!
We've
heard from about ten GLIFAA members who have children.
This incredible diversity of family situations (single parents, blended
families, adopted children, those who also have partners in a myriad of
relationships whether marriage or civil union) means that care and support for
children presents unique challenges. We have been thinking about an LGBT Kids or GLIFAA Kids Google Group, modeled after the MOH Network Yahoo
Group and the GLIFAA Post Reps Google Group. This group would be
specifically for those who have children, of whatever age, and for those that
are willing to share their experiences of raising children overseas,
contemplating switching into the foreign service with their children, wrestling
with the challenges of an unaccompanied post assignment when single, or
choosing to be civil service and remain state side. Please send your
feedback and ideas on this concept to Ajit Joshi, ajoshi@usaid.gov and Sara Calvert, scalvert@usaid.gov.
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| Did you serve in Iraq or Afghanistan??
GLIFAA would like to compile a list of GLBT members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Even if you feel that you do not want to provide your name, please let us know so you can be counted. This type of information will help show our leadership the committment that gay members have to our work - as well as show a real need to provide equal treatment. Please email glifaa@yahoo.com
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MOH Training Reminder
Members of Household are eligible for more and more opportunities!
Security
Overseas Seminar (required for employees, optional for EFMs & MOHs), Working
Across Cultures (required for employees), Introduction to Working in an
Embassy (required for employees), Realities in Foreign Service Life (optional
for employees, adult EFMs and MOHs), Post Options for Employment and Training
(optional for adult EFMs and MOH). And, we understand that spouses, EFMs and
MOHs are also eligible to take any non-funded courses at FSI (e.g.,
Traveling with Pets). |
LGBT International News!
From Problems in Africa - to the First Lesbian Prime Minister in Ireland!
Human rights for GLBT
Africans: One step forward, one step back by GLIFAA Member Ryan McCannell
Courts in two African countries that outlaw homosexuality handed down
two contradictory rulings in the past two weeks, demonstrating the challenges
that GLBT Africans face on the continent.
In Uganda,
a high court justice sided with plaintiffs accusing local government officials
and police of violating a gay activist's right to privacy, after police
stormed his house in 2005 in search of evidence that would implicate him for
the crime of homosexuality. According to the International Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHR), Ugandan "authorities have
harassed LGBT human rights defenders in their homes and in public and fined a
private radio station that broadcast a program on HIV prevention among men who
have sex with men. In July 2005, Uganda's Parliament passed an amendment to the constitution
making Uganda
only the second country in the world to use its supreme law to outlaw marriage
between people of the same sex. In 2007, a coalition of religious leaders
marched through the streets of Kampala
demanding the arrests of LGBT people with one cleric even calling for the
"starving to death" of homosexuals. Buttressed by the official
homophobia of the state, the Ugandan media has published lists of gay men and
lesbians, leading to physical violence, loss of employment and the curtailing
of educational opportunities for those LGBT people who were named."
In this context, the December 23 decision represents an astonishing and welcome
development in the fight for GLBT rights in East Africa.
Read more about the ruling at http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/section.php?id=5&detail=914
.
In contrast, authorities in Senegal
were sentenced to eight years in prison for "acts against the order of
nature" - the maximum possible sentence for this crime, according
to the Senegalese penal code. Read more about the case at http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/section.php?id=5&detail=915
.
We strongly urge our GLBT and allied colleagues to ensure
that the treatment of sexual minorities is covered in the annual State
Department Human Rights Reports and that we collectively find ways to support
these efforts to affirm equality for GLBT individuals in the countries where we
work.
World's First Lesbian Prime Minister
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