Secretary of State Clinton delivering address to LGBT employees

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this afternoon is delivering remarks at the 20th anniversary Celebration of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies, the State Department’s officially recognized employee affinity group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees.

Clinton, according to a news release, is responsible for the extension of the full range of benefits to same-sex domestic partners of foreign service members serving overseas. She also instituted the 2010 revision of the department’s equal employment opportunity policy to prohibit discriminatory treatment of employees and job applicants based on gender identity.

Advocating for employees of the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps, the Foreign Agricultural Service, the Foreign Commercial Service, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and all foreign affairs units of the U.S. government, GLIFAA works to ensure full parity for LGBT personnel and their families in U.S. foreign affairs agencies serving both domestically and abroad.

The group began in 1992 to challenge a security clearance process that at the time discriminated against LGBT employees.  GLIFAA has grown since that time to include hundreds of members and associates and become the officially recognized voice of LGBT personnel in U.S. foreign affairs agencies.

Today's program schedule had Clinton, chief of staff Cheryl Mills, deputy administrator Donald Steinberg, and GLIFAA president Ken Kero-Mentz making remarks. U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, GLIFAA co-founder David Buss and deputy assistant Secretary Daniel Baer also were to participate in the program taking place in the State Department's Benjamin Franklin Dining Room until about 4:30 p.m.