On September 25, the new board of glifaa held its inaugural happy hour of the year at Main State in collaboration with FLAGG, the LGBT staff association of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The event was attended by colleagues from different U.S. government agencies and diplomats from foreign missions to the United States.
glifaa’s Vice President for State, Chris Johnson, welcomed our guests and introduced the organization’s priorities for the upcoming year:
a. Advocacy for trans employees and eligible family members (EFMs);
b. Accreditation of same-sex spouses;
c. Promoting non-discrimination for all employees and EFMs;
d. Strengthening glifaa as an organization and deepening and broadening its network.
Vice President Johnson introduced the recently confirmed Director of the Office of Foreign Missions, Ambassador Stephen J. Akard, who gave brief remarks and highlighted the importance of collaboration between our governments as well as our employee affinity groups.
The last speaker for the evening was a FLAGG representative, Jonathan Marshall from the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Marshall briefly described the history of FLAGG, talked about their work around the world, and welcomed future collaboration between the two organizations.
This was a great opportunity to deepen the collaboration between glifaa and FLAGG as well as other LGBTI staff members from other foreign missions around Washington, D.C. We look forward to hosting more joint events and welcome more members to engage with the glifaa.
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