Even Far-Left State Department Employees Celebrate Rubio’s Anti-DEI Move

Even self-described far-left State Department employees are happy about Secretary Marco Rubio’s latest move to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to an unofficial State Department Reddit page reviewed by The Daily Signal.

“I’m a believer in DEIA and pretty far to the left,” one person who claimed to be a foreign service member wrote on Reddit. “However, the way it was practiced in DoS was completely performative and was actively discriminatory.”

The Daily Signal found the post on a Reddit page for “individuals who work for or aspire to work for the U.S. Foreign Service.” The Reddit is not endorsed or supported in any way by the U.S. State Department.

The posts refer to Rubio offering restitution to State Department employees who the Trump administration found were denied promotions during the Biden administration for not meeting new DEI standards.

Roughly 295 employees who were marked down for not showing they would “seek diversity in staff” will now receive pay increases, administrative promotions, and letters of commendation, Rubio said.

“I heard multiple country teams and hiring panels give preference to based on DEIA categories and had better qualified people lose out,” one post from someone claiming to be a Foreign Service officer says. “For example if the top choice for a position was a white male and the second was a POC, we were told by leadership to go with the POC specifically for DEIA.”

“The scoring for promotion was also crazy,” the post continued. “I had a direct report regularly spewing racist and sexist crap. I went through the EXTREMELY painful process to hold that person accountable. I also terminated a local staff for racist actions and held trainings for my staff on multiculturalism and respectful workplace. I was also a EEO coordinator and dealt with numerous issues there. I got a 3.5. My friend organized a multicultural lunchtime potluck and a GLIFA happy hour (in a country that is extremely open and friendly to LGTBQ+) and got a 4.5. That kind of BS is what gave the right-wing ammo to point at the excesses of DEIA and completely destroy the idea of DEIA in the department.”

Another person posted that he or she was not affected personally but had a co-worker who was passed over due to DEI considerations.

“I was not affected personally by the changes announced yesterday, but I have at least one coworker who claims they would have been promoted in 2024 had they scored higher on the DEIA precept,” the post said.

Another self-proclaimed Foreign Service officer identified himself or herself as “a big supporter of diversity initiatives that are actually implemented correctly.”

“I was recommended but not promoted in 2023. In 2024 I was mid ranked,” the person posted. “In one of those years (can’t recall), when we got the breakdown of scores, all of my scores were above the promotion average, but I had an abysmal DEIA score, despite documenting efforts. I don’t qualify for the administrative action announced unless I happen to be one of the 13 mentioned at the end – I’m guessing those are specifically identified BFFs. But I am very happy for everyone who is getting promoted after throwing out the ludicrous DEIA score. It is well deserved.”

A State Department political appointee told The Daily Signal they were “glad to see that employees from both the left and the right saw how crazy the DEI policies were at the State Department.”

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