You've GOT To Be Kidding Me!

How can the U.S. State Department even consider granting same-sex benefits to partners of U.S. diplomats when we are struggling to get same-sex benefits (via same-sex marriage) passed state by state in this country? Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, is preparing to send a notice out to State Department employees about the proposal. In the notice, she states that “these inequities are unfair and must end.” NO KIDDING!!! That’s what gay and lesbian people have been trying to get through people’s heads since the whole Prop. 8 thing took center stage in California!

 

Normally I don’t get all huffy and puffy about the gay rights situation in this country, after all, my being gay is just a part of who I am, I don’t let it consume me, but this is outrageous. According to an article on CNN.com, “Until now, the State Department had withheld these benefits citing the Defense of Marriage Law, which restricts the recognition of same-sex marriages on the federal level. … ‘Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our posts abroad’, the note says. It will also help attract and retain personnel and, the note adds, ‘it is the right thing to do.’” It’s obviously the right thing to do, but why would we show good faith to our Foreign Service members, but not to the citizens of this country? This is what people have been fighting for for decades and with an interagency review and the stroke of a pen, we’re going to allow it for people who aren’t even citizens of this country. It blows my mind.