The Foreign Service Journal, November 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2018 13 TALKING POINTS United States Denies Visas to Same-Sex Partners of Foreign Diplomats O n Oct. 1, the Trump administra- tion announced that it would begin denying visas to the unmarried, same-sex partners of foreign diplomats and other employees of the United Nations. The same-sex partners of these diplomats have until the end of the year to either marry or leave the country. The decision was made despite the fact that many of these diplomats hail from countries that do not recognize same-sex marriage and would face pros- ecution in their home countries if they were to marry in the United States. The decision was widely covered by the U.S. press, including The Washington Post , Politico , NPR, Time , CNN, Fox News, USA Today and other major outlets. In a teleconference conducted “on background,” an unidentified senior administration official said that the new policy, which they called “forward- leaning,” will affect approximately 105 families currently in the United States. Another official on the call said that the policy change is merely intended to “mirror what U.S. policy is now,” refer- ring to the fact that as of Sept. 30, 2018, U.S. diplomats must be legally married in order to confer deriva- tive diplomatic status to their spouses. A third official said that if the marriage requirement couldn’t be met, the depart- ment would “work with individuals on a case- by-case basis to help them try to legally adjust their status to remain in the United States after the deadline.” The New York Times reported on Oct. 2 that former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power called the new policy “needlessly cruel and bigoted” in a tweet. Diversity in Diplomacy? O n Sept. 17, Politico published an article by former Foreign Service Officer Uzra Zeya lamenting the declin e in diversity since the start of the current administration. Wrote Zeya: “Our prog- ress on diversity was far from adequate, but for most of my career, across both Democratic and Republican administra- tions, I could say with confidence that my government was striving to build a diplomatic corps that looked more like America as a whole. …That is, until the Trump administration.” Zeya notes that in the first five months of the current administration, the State Department’s three most senior African- American officials “were removed or resigned abruptly from their positions,” along with the top-ranking Latino officer, all of whom were replaced by whites. She used public data from AFSA to point out that 64 percent of President Trump’s ambassadorial nominees have been white, non-Hispanic males. Not a single African-American female has been nomi- nated for an ambassadorship. Foreign Policy echoed Zeya’s argu- ment on Sept. 17, writing that nearly a dozen current and former State Depart- ment officials told FP that “Trump’s failure to address the problem would likely exacerbate recruitment challenges at Foggy Bottom and could undercut U.S. foreign-policy priorities abroad.” Accord- ing to FP , of the 52 political appointees Trump has nominated, 48 are white, while 38 are men. On Sept. 28, State Department official Kiron Skinner responded. Skinner, who became the department’s director of policy planning in September, told the Washington Examiner that while “most institutions” in the United States aren’t adequately diverse, “given some of the trends in the U.S. against diversity—espe- cially racial diversity—the State Depart- ment is doing much better.” Skinner, who is African-American, told the Examiner that diversity is a priority for Secretary Mike Pompeo, saying: “I think me joining the State Department is one example of it—in a leadership role, on the seventh floor, near Mahogany Row, run- ning the historic think tank shop for the State Department.” Ambassador (ret.) Linda Thomas- Greenfield, who up until her retirement in 2017 was the most senior African- American woman at the State Depart- ment, disagrees. “Diversity is not a priority for this administration. It’s not on their agenda,” she told Foreign Policy . “We can’t have a Foreign Service in which the world sees and thinks our entire lead- ership is white and male.” ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/WALDEMARUS