In an internal memo sent to the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last week that the State Department will begin granting equal benefits to the spouses of gay diplomats.

Secretary Clinton indicated shortly after assuming her role as head of the State Department that she intended to change the benefit rules for same-sex couples. At the first town-hall she held with employees of the State Department, Clinton said that she saw the issue “as an issue of workplace fairness, employee retention, and the safety and effectiveness of our embassy communities.”

She echoed those themes in her memo announcing the change:

In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, 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.

According to the New York Times, the new benefits granted same-sex partners include diplomatic passports, use of medical facilities, emergency evacuation from posts, transportation between posts, and training in security and languages.

All these benefits– in particular those safety-related elements like emergency evacuation for same-sex partners– are essential to the gay diplomats currently serving as part of the foreign service. Secretary Clinton and the Obama administration should be applauded for acknowleging the importance of change for the families of same-sex diplomats. But we should not allow this to become their demonstration of their commitment to the LGBT community.

It is an important step, but, if anything, it demonstrates only that they do believe in the importance of equality and their actions to the contrary are, at root, political calculations. So kudos, Secretary Clinton and the Obama administration, for this step toward justice. But let’s not let it distract us from larger, national fights that impact millions of LGBT people, same-sex couples, and families across the country.g

As people who have grown up negotiating a hostile environment, LGBT people are “naturals” at reading others and at diplomacy. 

But more importantly LGBT people in much of the world face horrific conditions including being put to death just for being gay.

Having the most powerful nation in the world represented by an (openly) LGBT Secretary of State would force the issue and perhaps lead to better treatment for some of our less fortunate brethren overseas.

Kevin Jennings is executive director of GLSEN.

Go back to the main story for more opinions on where we need LGBT officials.