WASHINGTON, DC–Last week, the State Department granted asylum to a Russian student who applied for it citing the Russian government’s anti-gay laws and persecution from homophobic vigilante groups. (Granting asylum to LGBT individuals in Russia is a policy that the Agenda has urged the State Department to adopt.) The teenager involved, who has not been identified, is a 16-year-old exchange student who was visiting the U.S. under the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program. According to the New York Times, this incident has prompted the Russian government to cancel Russia’s participation in FLEX.

The Russian government claims that the student was persuaded to stay in the U.S. by a gay American couple, who made him promises that included paying his college tuition. The U.S. State Department will not confirm this nor identify who the foster parents are. However, the Washington Post has corroborated that much in the Russian government’s account. Russian diplomats are demanding the return of the student to the his natural parents in Russia, who allegedly disapprove of the asylum.

Then, on the heels of this extraordinary development, the State Department announced that it would remove “transgender exclusion” from the agency’s employee insurance policies. The department has about 12 health insurance providers. The first to comply with this new policy is the American Foreign Service Protective Association — the largest, covering almost 31 percent of the agency’s employees.

The new policy will make it possible for transgender individuals and their families to qualify for health services not related to gender reassignment, something which was not practiced before this.

Secretary of State John Kerry told the Washington Post, “It’s about fairness and respect for our employees, but it’s also about showing the world we mean what we say and say what we mean…. So this matters in many ways. I’ve met transgendered colleagues at the Department and, in addition to being brave and strong, they’re just good officers. Why should they have it any different when it comes to health care?”