The Foreign Service Journal, December 2014

16 DECEMBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA Scholarship AFSA.org/Scholar AFSPA AFSPA.org BlueCross BlueShield Fearless.fepblue.org Clements Worldwide clements.com Embassy Risk Management Embassyrisk.com Fishburne Military School Fishburne.org/learn The Hirshorn Company Hirshorn.com/USFS J. Kirby Simon Trust Kirbysimontrust.org Inside A U.S. Embassy afsa.org/Inside McGrath Real Estate Services McGrathRealEstate.com Stanford HS Summer College Summercollege.stanford.edu WJD Management wjdpm.com request, its largest health insurance program has eliminated the “transgender exclusion” from its plan. Most health insurance policies o ered under the Federal Employees Health Bene ts program exclude services “related to sex reassignment.” But starting in January 2015, insurance plans o ered by the American Foreign Service Protec- tive Association, the department’s largest insurer, will no longer exclude those bene ts. According to e Washington Post’s “Federal Eye” column, the State Depart - ment has asked all of its plans to remove the transgender exclusion. AFSPA, which covers almost 30 percent of State Depart- ment employees, is the rst to comply. e State Department has identi ed as a priority the human rights of lesbian , gay, bisexual and transgender persons worldwide. In a statement to the Post , Secretary of State John Kerry explained that the change is “about fairness and respect for our employees, but it’s also about show- ing the world we mean what we say and say what we mean.” Kerry continued: “It’s tough to tell other countries to provide equal opportu- nity if we’re not living that out ourselves. So this matters in many ways. I’ve met transgender colleagues in the depart- ment and, in addition to being brave and strong, they’re just good o cers. Why should they have it any di erent when it comes to health care?” —Debra Blome, Associate Editor Comedian Takes on Diplomat in Twitter ‘War’ F ormer U.S. Secretary of State Mad- eleine Albright verbally sparred with late-night talk show host and come- dian Conan O’Brien via Twitter in late October. e battle, which Albright later described on Twitter as “all in good fun,” began with O’Brien taking the rst shot. On Oct. 23, O’Brien tweeted “I picked out my Halloween costume. I’m going as ‘Slutty Madeleine Albright.’” Albright didn’t let that pass. “I’m considering going as hunky Conan O’Brien—but that might be too far-fetched,” she responded. e exchange went viral on Twitter and beyond to the mainstreammedia. It continued with a few more tweets between the two. Albright warned O’Brien: “Never get into a word war with a diplomat. We talk even more than comedians.” And O’Brien conceded: “Damn—whenever I go toe to toe with @Madeleine Albright, she always wins.” n —Debra Blome, Associate Editor