The Foreign Service Journal, June 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2015 13 State—One of the “Best” Places to Work T he State Department was the only federal agency to rank in the top 50 of “best employers” in a new survey by Statista. com released by Forbes magazine on March 25. To create this list, Forbes asked more than 20,000 workers from different fields—large companies, nonprofit institutions, govern- ment agencies—a simple question: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely would you be to recommend your employer to someone else?” Google took the top spot on this ranking—no surprise, certainly. The State Department was the highest-rank- ing federal agency, coming in 34th. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service ranked next highest at #60. The Partnership for Public Service publishes its own list each December: “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.” The views of more than 392,700 federal employees are included in this survey, which ranks more than 389 federal organizations. The State Department also fared well in this survey, ranking 3rd among large-sized agencies for 2014. The Partnership for Public Service’s data collection and its analysis of that data is impressively thorough. The new Forbes list, not so much. Forbes notes, for example, that the State Department has 9,761 employees—a number that is clearly inaccurate. The Partnership for Public Service reports nearly 24,000 State employees. —Debra Blome, Associate Editor Eyes on America’s LGBT Ambassadors O n March 24, the six current U.S. ambas- sadors who are openly gay participated in a panel discussion at the New- seum, co-hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the Harvey Milk Founda- tion and the affinity group GLIFAA. The six are John Berry, ambassador to Australia; James “Wally” Brewster, ambassador to the Domin- ican Republic; Rufus Gifford, ambassador to Denmark; Daniel Baer, ambassador to the Organization for Security and Coop- eration in Europe; James Costos, ambassa- dor to Spain and Andorra; and Ted Osius, a Foreign Service officer and ambassador to Vietnam. Also attending were GLIFAA President SelimAriturk and newly appointed Spe- cial Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Persons, Randy Berry, both FSOs. Ambassador Osius, the only career dip- lomat among the ambassadors, discussed how far the State Department has come since he helped found GLIFAA in 1992. At that time, employees ran the risk of losing their security clearance, and ultimately their jobs, if they were discovered to be gay. “Just a few decades ago, if you worked in the Foreign Service, being gay was your most closely guarded secret,” HRC Presi- dent Chad Griffin commented. “Today there is no clearer sign of our progress than the fact that there is not one, not two, but six openly gay ambassadors serving this country overseas.” Amb. John Berry argued that being out and visible is extremely important, and TALKING POINTS The six current U.S. ambassadors who are openly gay, at the Newseum panel discussion on March 24 in Washington, D.C. From left, John Berry, James “Wally” Brewster, Rufus Gifford, Daniel Baer, James Costos and Ted Osius. COURTESYOFGLIFAA making sure people in other countries meet and interact with openly gay officials can help move equality issues forward. Amb. Gifford agreed: “Every personal story matters…to be able to talk about who we are, and give a slightly more nuanced version of what it means to be American.” Amb. Brewster addressed some of the challenges he faced in moving to the very socially conservative Dominican Repub- lic: “You don’t address the people who make the bad comments. All you do is talk about love. …When you talk about that, the goodness of the people comes out. And it became a social conversation that was needed in the Caribbean.” Though the department has come a long way, there have never been ambas- sadors who “represent the ‘L,’ the ‘B’ and the ‘T’ in LGBT. At last year’s GLIFAA Pride event, Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed, “I’mworking hard to ensure that by the end of my tenure, we will have lesbian, bisexual, and transgender ambas- sadors in our ranks, as well.” Amb. Baer perhaps summed it up best: “There is an arc that bends toward justice, but it takes a lot of work to bend it.” —Shannon Mizzi, Editorial Intern