Gay rights advocates have become increasingly impatient for the Obama administration to make good on its pledge to dismantle the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell insanity. Till then, at least there’s some positive news from the State Department. Matthew Lee from the Huffington Post reports:
In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, [Secretary of State Hillary] 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.
Among the benefits that will now be granted gay diplomats: the right of domestic partners to hold diplomatic passports, government-paid travel for their partners and families to and from foreign posts, and the use of U.S. medical facilities abroad ….
Previously, the State Department had withheld some benefits from the families of gay diplomats, citing the Defense of Marriage Law, which had restricted federal recognition of same-sex marriages. [emphasis added]
Yes, despite all the hubbub on gay marriage, corporate america, whose creed is simply to spot and keep talent, has recognized pretty clearly that domestic partner benefits make good business sense. So in the end, do we want our best and brightest employees choosing to serve our country – or only serve corporations that are simply more practical in their hiring practices?
Stories on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, both pro- and con-, tend to focus on justice, fairness and morality. While those issues certainly exist, to me it’s more a question of whether you want America to be smarter, or to keep getting dumber.
I’m in favor of a smarter America, one in which first rate Arab linguists like Daniel Choi are hired and retained for how well they do their job.
What a wacky world that would be, huh? If we actually wanted to keep all our best Arab linguists to protect the country. But hey, we don’t really need top notch Arab linguists, do we?
Here to protect our country; if only we'd let him....
