.jpg "Washington Blade - Michael Guest, a former ambassador to Romania who is gay, was tapped by the Obama transition team to review issues related to the State Department. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda)") |
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Michael Guest, a former ambassador to Romania who is gay, was tapped by the Obama transition team to review issues related to the State Department. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR COMMENTS
 
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for nearly 20 years as a career U.S. Foreign Service officer when Bush named him ambassador to Romania in 2001. After completing his term as ambassador in 2003, he became dean of the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, which trains Foreign Service officers.
Guest created a stir in 2007 when he announced he was retiring from government service in part to protest a State Department policy that denies spousal benefits, including security protections, to same-sex partners of Foreign Service officers stationed at overseas posts. He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had authority to provide some of the partner benefits but she declined to do so.
Earlier this year, Guest said he was supporting Obama’s presidential bid.
The other openly gay members named to the transition review teams include Rick Stamberger, president and CEO of SmartBrief, Inc., an online news publisher; Brad Kiley, an official with the Washington-based Center for American Progress think tank; and Thomas Soto, co-founder of Craton Equity Partners, a large “clean technology” investment fund based in Southern California.
Stamberger is serving on a transition panel reviewing the White House Fellows program. Kiley and Soto are serving on panels reviewing the Executive Office of the President, with Soto focusing on the workings of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
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