The Foreign Service Journal, September 2013

46 SEPTEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Ambassador Michael Guest Christian A. Herter Award, 2006 Regarding LGBT Rights Did your dissent lead to any change in policy? Not immediately. In fact, I ended my career in November 2007 rather than taking my partner overseas again under the same unfair policy condi- tions. But shortly after my departure became public, the Obama campaign reached out to me to ask what needed to be done, should Barack Obama be elected president, to fix the problem. Imagine how I felt! I ended up joining the campaign, working on three policy committees and then on the transition team, in large part to see those policies reversed. When Hillary Rodham Clinton was named Sec- retary of State-designate, I sat down and talked with her about the issue, and what the transition team recommended be done to correct it. She clearly understood why this mattered. I knew that very day that she would fix the problem. Five months later, President Obama cited my departure from State when he issued an executive order to change the State Depart- ment’s policies. It was this admin- istration’s first policy step on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, and the starting point for similar steps at other federal agencies. and impact. We were the best informed officials in the U.S. government on this subject; we were the ones reading the atrocity reports from the Bureau of Intel- ligence and Research every day; and we had tried for several years to share our views and concerns through normal channels. So it’s also a lesson for leaders and supervisors: if your team is telling you that something is wrong, listen and try to find a way to enable a variety of views to reach our senior leadership. n What was the impact of the dissent, and the dissent award, on your career? When I was given the award, I thought the tide was turning. But the run-around continued, and I came to understand that Secretary Con- doleezza Rice and her team would do nothing. That whole process deeply changed how I viewed my career. A parade of senior officials had told me that I was absolutely right, that the policy needed to change—and then none of them did anything to change it. It was Eric Rubin kayaking in British Colombia, July 2013. Mike Guest (left) and his husband Alex Nevarez at Bodega Bay, Calif. “Five months later, President Obama cited my departure from State when he issued an executive order to change the department’s policies.” –Michael Guest Eric Rubin currently serves as deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. He joined the Foreign Service in 1985, following two years as a reporter trainee at the New York Times . He most recently served as deputy chief of mission in Moscow (2008-2011), following overseas assignments in Honduras, Ukraine and Thailand. His Washington assignments span the department’s regional and functional bureaus and executive of- fices. He was Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellow and a resident associate at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy from 1999-2000. He speaks Thai, Spanish, French, Ukrainian and Russian. Rubin and fellow Bosnia-13 member Jon Benton give a presentation on dissent that has become a regular part of the schedule for incoming A-100 classes.