Clinton Rules: State Dept To Grant Equal Benefits To Gay Diplomats

Secretary of State Clinton has ruled that the State Department will grant equal benefits to gay diplomats.

In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, Clinton says regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the same rights and privileges that straight diplomats enjoyed are "unfair and must end," as they harm U.S. diplomacy. "Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our posts abroad," she says in the message, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. "It will also help the department attract and retain personnel in a competitive environment where domestic partner benefits and allowances are increasingly the norm for world-class employers," she says.

The partners of gay diplomats will be granted health benefits, diplomatic passports, and government-paid transport to foreign postings. These benefits had been withheld in the past under the reasoning that to grant them would violate DOMA.

RELATED: In 1999 Bill Clinton appointed James Hormel as the country's first openly gay ambassador.