The Foreign Service Journal, November 2004

Dec. 1, 1999, to then-Under Secretary for Management Bonnie Cohen, in which he laid out a con- vincing argument for including domestic partners (either same-sex or opposite-sex) in the MOH policy: “American society is changing. Changes in the economy, workforce, social and economic roles of men and women, and what constitutes socially acceptable sexual relationships have all impacted on family structure. Single-parent households are far more prevalent today than 25 years ago; common-law marriages and single-sex couples are more common. Long-term committed relationships with unmarried domestic partners are a reality of our society, and increasingly have access to the same social and economic support systems as do married people. AFSA believes that the unique circumstances of overseas service make it imperative for the department to reduce barriers that employees with unmarried domestic partners face in trying to live their private lives while stationed abroad.” Adair’s successors at AFSA, John Naland and John Limbert, have like- wise welcomed employee input (through GLIFAA, an officially rec- ognized employee organization) and that of the association’s members on these issues, and have continued to press management to be more inclu- sive. Yet while things are undeniably better than ever before for those of us with “non-traditional” families, the Foreign Service is still far from parity with the American private sector in regard to employee benefits. In the post-9/11 environment, the Foreign Service simply has to do better on this and other diversity-related issues if it wants to keep recruiting and retain- ing the best and brightest in a career which becomes less attractive as the death counts from Iraq rise well over 1,000 for uniformed service members alone. Eager international relations 14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4 S P E A K I N G O U T u