Refusing to Give Up On the Foreign Service

J ohn A. Boland got a top score on the Foreign Service written exam and, after an all-day interview session, received a job offer from the State Department, pending a medical clearance.

An official told him that he would be placed on a waiting list to be hired, and "said I would be one of the first persons called," Boland recalled last week.

He never got the call.

At his medical exam, Boland, 32, informed officials that he has been treated for a mild form of an obsessive compulsive disorder and takes a commonly prescribed medication, Paxil. Upon learning that, the State Department decided that Boland could not be hired.

Applicants for the Foreign Service must be available to serve at posts throughout the world, and Boland's condition does not allow him to meet that employment requirement, the department told him.

It has been almost seven years since the State Department rejected Boland, but he has refused to give up on serving his country. "I am very, very patriotic," he said. "I genuinely want and am able to serve."

Boland hired a lawyer and filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He recruited an expert from Harvard Medical School who testified that his disorder is easily treatable, does not cause a social impairment and does not interfere with Boland's ability to work.

An EEOC administrative judge, however, ruled that the State Department had not violated the 1973 Rehabilitation Act because the requirement for worldwide assignment was a lawful, job-related standard.

Boland has filed an appeal at the EEOC and believes he will prevail. "All I am asking for is a good-faith reading of my case," he said. "I would like to have someone explain to me why the State Department is being so difficult."

He also hopes that the department's recent settlement with Lorenzo Taylor will make a difference in his case. Taylor also had received a conditional offer of employment after passing the Foreign Service exam but was barred from becoming a diplomat because he has HIV.

Taylor sued the department in 2003, with the help of Lambda Legal, a New York group that advocates for the rights of gays and people with HIV. The case was scheduled for trial when the State Department announced Feb. 15 that it was changing medical clearance rules that disqualified HIV-positive job applicants from becoming diplomats.

"The new clearance guidelines provide that HIV-positive individuals may be deemed worldwide available if certain medical conditions are met," said Brenda L. Greenberg, a department spokeswoman. "The change simply reflects the medical advances in this area of HIV care and maintenance."