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Loading ...Gay ambassador likely to return under Clinton State Dept.
12.05.2008 9:45am EST
(Washington) Preparing for her new role as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton is moving to surround herself with a cast of die-hard loyalists and veterans of her husband’s administration to help her cope with world crises and backstage Washington power plays.
One notable name on the list is Michael Guest, one of only two openly gay ambassadors ever to represent the United States overseas. Guest resigned from the foreign service in mid-career last December to protest the State Department’s treatment of same-sex partners of diplomats.For her team of foreign policy experts, the nation’s third female secretary of state is expected to draw heavily from the staff of the first, Madeleine Albright, who was an early supporter of Clinton’s unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
And to deal with internal Obama administration affairs, State Department bureaucratic politics and media pressures, the former first lady appears set to tap current Senate aides and former White House “Hillaryland” stalwarts, whose reputation for insularity and staunch protectiveness has already set off anxiety among career foreign service officers.
State Department officials say they have been told to expect visits as early as next week from Clinton advisers who are working with President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming transition team. Members of the new administration’s team have been at State since mid-November, getting briefings and visiting officials there. Neither the transition team nor Clinton’s office would comment.
Dr. Singh,
I’d like to introduce you to the next US ambassador to India, Mr. Michael Guest.
(long pause)
Let the gays invade DC again! Yes, we will overcome all!
Since Ambassador Guest left because of the State Department’s homophobic policies, his return would likely indicate that the new Secretary of State has – or is in the process of – changing those policies. Hopefully, Obama and Hillary will consider changing the State Department’s tune on gay rights in more general terms as well.
Under Bush and Rice, the State Department also rotuinely joined the “Axis of Evil” in voting against any UN resoluation that mentions gay rights (fustrating the European and Latin American states who largely support such a measure). And what a wonderful message to send to our friends and foes alike. America, North Korea, and Iran together at last – standing up for their collective hatred of homosexuality. Ever since Raul Castro took over from Fidel, even “tyrannical” Cuba has voted for these gay rights resolutions. That’s right folks, Cuba is now ahead of us on this issue. What more needs to be said?
This would be a great opportunity for Michael Guest to resume his career in the foreign service or least maybe in the state department. Meybe he could make many suggestions to Hillary on how to make foreign service more gay friendly re: same-sex partners of future gay US ambaassadors. There was James Hormel who served as US ambassador to Luxembourg and Michael Guest was our ambassador to Romania.
Hopefully Michael Guest can be a US ambassador again and can take his partner under future revised rules that give both gay snd straight spouse of foreign service personel like Michael Guest exact and precisely equal treatment.
Michael Guest chose his partner’s safety over his own career and he resigned during this current administration as he felt that he could not provide for his partner’s needs and physical safety under rules that favored straight married foreign service personel and their spouses while treating him ans his partner like did not exist and were not worthy of consideraton. I read that he had a number of conversatons with Condaleeza Rice (who has her own set of lesbian rumors about her as she is middle-aged and still single) about these issues facing him and his partner with nothing at all resulting from his talks with her afterwards.
Feeling like he was getting nowhere with getting the foreign service and State Dept rules cnanged and made more equal he resigned and he and his partner returned to the US.