The Foreign Service Journal, December 2008

68 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / DE C EMB E R 2 0 0 8 M ichaelGuest, a former ambassador toRomaniawho retired fromthe State Department in 2007, is serving as an adviser to the Council for Global Equality, a neworganizationhe co- founded this fall that addresses the rights of same-sexdomesticpartners. Guest,who was the first openly gay, Senate-con- firmed ambassador, encountered myriad difficulties in getting logistical support for his accompanying partner while posted overseas. His early retirementwas indirect protest of StateDepartment policyonsame- sex domestic partners. Ambassador Guest’s distinguished diplomatic career, spanning 26 years, took himtoposts as diverse asMoscow, Prague, Paris and Hong Kong. His Washington positions includeddeputydirector forpolit- ical affairs intheOfficeof EuropeanSecurity andPolitical Affairs andacting assistant sec- retary for legislative affairs. Before retiring, he served as dean of the Leadership and Management School at the ForeignService Institute. Guest admits that for the first half of his career, when he was without a domestic partner, he was not especially aware of the lack of a coherent State Department poli- cy on gay members of household. It was after he met his life partner, Alex Nevarez, in 1995, and the two prepared for Guest’s overseas assignment inPrague, thatthechal- lenges were brought home to him. “It wasn’t as if we were handed a list of regulations,”he says. “Instead, we ran into obstacles piecemeal: on each separate issue we’d get one office or another saying, ‘No, you can’t do that.’” By the time Guest was appointed ambassador to Romania in 2001, he sus- tained thehope that someof the stumbling blocks still in front of same-sex domestic partnerswouldsoonbe removed. “Iunder- stood the limitations we were up against because of our Prague experience, but I believed State’s policy was truly changing, especially sinceSecretaryof StateMadeleine Albright had taken initial steps to address theissuesandSecretaryofStateColinPowell swore me in with my partner at my side. But I soon came to realize there was no progress being made at all.” Guest recalls aphone call he received in Bucharest fromastaffmemberoftheSenate ForeignRelations Committee: “It was two weeks after 9/11. I hadserious issues todeal with for our country, and Iwas beingasked if my partner’s socks and underwear were shipped at government expense toBucha- rest.” (They weren’t; Guest and Nevarez were meticulous about separating their effects.) Mr. Nevarez was unable to use the embassy health unit without paying a fee, was barred fromthe commissaryandother facilities, had topay for shipment of all per- sonal effects and airfare and was not eligi- ble to be evacuated in case of emergency. Yet Nevarez was engaged in ambassadori- al representational activities andwas com- mitted to contributing to the morale and spirit of the embassy community. In2004,Guest experiencedwhathe calls a “crystal-clearmoment”while standing in the cafeteria at theNational ForeignAffairs TrainingCenter. AyoungFSOapproached and told the ambassador that he had hesi- tated to join the ForeignService, fearing an unwelcoming attitude toward homosexu- als, but was now a new officer, inspired by Guest’s career. “I suddenly felt sad that this new, enthusiastic officer just didn’t know what he was in for,” Guest recalls. “And that’s when I started to take the issue seri- ously and realized I needed to do more. I don’t evenknowthat officer’sname, but he was my catalyst.” Forthenextthreeyears,Guestconstantly lobbied senior department officials for fair treatment of same-sex domestic partners. Frustrated by the lack of progress on this issue, he retired in 2007. Guest recalls, A F S A N E W S Former Ambassador Michael Guest accepts the Christian A. Herter Award for Constructive Dissent, presented by Ambassador Edward “Gib” Lanpher at an AFSA ceremony at the State Department on June 22, 2006. AFSA LENDS SUPPORT FOR DOMESTIC PARTNERS LEGISLATION Former Ambassador Works to End Discrimination Against Gay Partners BY FRANCESCA KELLY MIKKELA THOMPSON