John Kerry Apologizes For LGBT Discrimination in State Department

Just before US Secretary of State John Kerry has to step down, he has apologized for the State Department’s treatment towards the LGBT community.

Decades have gone by where the queer community has been looked down upon in our nation’s State Department. This includes forcing LGBT employees to resign, and also not hiring those people who are in same-sex relationships. In the 1950s and 1960s, over 1,000 people were dismissed due to their sexual orientation, according to scholarly works like The Lavender Scare by David K. Johnson. This trend has only continued.

On Monday however, US Secretary of State John Kerry finally addressed it with a long overdue apology, which included the following:

"“In the past – as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades – the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place. These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today.”"

Kerry is utilizing his remaining 11 days in office to make up for years of wrongdoing in this country, and we’re appreciative of that. This apology comes shortly after Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland wrote a letter to Kerry, asking that he “take steps to remedy a deep stain on our national history and that of the State Department itself: The legacy of the so-called ‘lavender scare’ in which hundreds of State Department employees were dismissed from service because of their perceived sexual orientation.”

Cardin was thankful for this apology, sending out a tweet addressing Kerry’s statement.

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After a long awaited apology, this leaves one to wonder what the upcoming administration has in store for the LGBT community though.