The News
The US State Department has suspended its organization for LGBTQ employees, with leadership ordering a pause on all official activities.
The move is part of the department’s wider directive to all employee affinity groups to “cancel any planned events, meetings, announcements or other activities,” GLIFAA, the official group representing LGBTQ State Department employees, told its members in an email that Semafor obtained. The State Department also has affinity organizations for Christians, veterans, and various minority groups.
A State Department spokesperson told Semafor that all employee organizations had been notified that “there is a temporary pause on all activities until further notice to ensure compliance with recent Executive Orders.”
GLIFAA said the department’s decision was taken to comply with a memorandum from the White House’s Office of Personnel Management, which told all departments to disband any employee resource groups that “inculcate or promote gender ideology” on the basis of a Trump executive order.
GLIFAA, founded in 1992, said it would continue to exist as a nonprofit organization without an official relationship to the department, and is consulting with labor unions and advocacy groups to ensure continued nondiscrimination protections within the State Department.
Former secretaries of state including Antony Blinken and Hillary Clinton have praised the group for its work expanding the rights of LGBTQ employees in the foreign service.
The Washington Blade first reported on GLIFAA’s message to its members.
Other parts of the federal bureaucracy have temporarily suspended commemorations or organizations that represent underrepresented groups within the government. The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency canceled Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month activities, while the US Air Force eliminated groups working to ensure equal opportunities for women, and service members who are disabled, Hispanic, Black, LGBTQ, and Native American.