California
representative Howard Berman predicted in an interview Thursday
that the White House would be presenting new information
regarding LGBT policies sometime before annual pride
celebrations in June.
"I think the White
House is preparing to make an announcement on a number of
issues," he said, declining to go into
detail. "I'm predicting here, not informing, that by
the Stonewall anniversary we will have a very clear picture of
what the administration is doing."
Congressman Berman, who
chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, foreshadowed the
announcements during an interview about the Foreign Affairs
authorization bill that passed out of his committee Wednesday
and will provide new diplomatic and
development resources for the State Department.
While the bill included
many positive provisions to help address LGBT issues
abroad, one section that was struck from the legislation would
have ended the practice of excluding domestic partners of
foreign service officers from benefits routinely provided to
spouses and children, such as access to emergency evacuation
support, training and language classes, health care and
regional medical units, employment opportunities, consulate
services, and visa and relocation support.
Berman said he agreed
to remove that section of the bill based on his understanding
that both the Obama administration and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton were committed to equalizing treatment for
same-sex partners in the very near future. He suggested that
declaration might be part of a greater package of policy
pronouncements from the White House.
"My expectation with
respect to the issues that were originally part of my bill, is
that the State Department and the secretary will provide the
kinds of benefits that I sought," he said, adding that he was
committed to ending discrimination against gay and lesbian
foreign service officers. "If I'm wrong, which I don't think
I am, we still have a ways to go on this bill and we can
reverse course."
Berman referenced a
quote from Michael Guest, a gay ambassador who finally resigned
in 2007 over the State Department's discriminatory practices,
in which Guest said, "Under current practices, we're kinder
to family pets of foreign service officers than we are to gay
partners." That's true, Berman said, noting that the country
pays for the transportation costs of pets to and from foreign
posts and provides evacuation services for pets.
What did make the bill
were a series of policies that will empower the State
Department to: track violence and discrimination against LGBT
people that would be deemed illegal in the United States;
encourage and persuade governments of other countries to repeal
or reform any laws that criminalize homosexuality or restrict
fundamental freedoms of gay individuals or organizations;
include in annual human rights reports documentation of
violence or discrimination against people based on their
perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
Representative Berman
said some Republican congressmen like Chris Smith and Mike
Pence opposed those inclusions in the bill.
"They were torn and
conflicted, almost anguished in the debate," said Berman,
"because I don't think they can or do justify violence
against people because of their sexual orientation and I think
they no longer seek to defend criminalization of homosexual
conduct . And yet, [those protections are] what they sought to
eliminate with their amendments."
Berman said he was
hopeful the bill would reach the House floor for consideration
by early June.
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