In June 2006, the American Foreign Service Association awarded him the Christian Herter Award for Constructive Dissent, for his advocacy on behalf of equality for State Department gay and lesbian employees. Retirement Guest retired from the State Department, where he last served as a dean at the Department's Foreign Service Institute. At his retirement ceremony on November 20, 2007, in the Treaty Room, Guest publicly criticized Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the issue of discrimination against gay employees and specifically the benefits denied to same-sex partners of department employees. He remarked, "I've felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner – who is my family – and service to my country. That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the Secretary's leadership and a shame for this institution and our country." On December 5, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Guest had been selected as a member of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team at the State Department. Also in 2008, Guest co-founded the Council for Global Equity (a coalition of human rights and LGBT advocacy organizations seeking U.S. support for LGBT-fair policies abroad), for which he is a senior adviser. Guest was a co-author of the Dallas Principles, drafted in May 2009. In early 2016, at a Council for Global Equity reception in Washington, D.C., Guest spoke against the anti-immigrant "hateful rhetoric" that Republican candidates had been using on the campaign trail. In November 2020, Guest was named a volunteer member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the United States Department of State. See also Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) United States Foreign Service List of LGBT ambassadors of the United States References 1957 births Living people Ambassadors of the United States to Romania Gay diplomats LGBT ambassadors of the United States United States Foreign Service personnel