Today's Out Spotlight is the highest-ranking openly gay federal employee in U.S. history as the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). He has stood on both poles of The Earth and has a mountain named after him. Today's Out Spotlight is John Berry.

John Berry was born in Rockville, Maryland,February 10, 1959, the son of two career federal government employees. His father served in the U.S. Marine Corps and his mother worked for the U.S. Census Bureau. One of three children, Berry graduated from high school in 1977 and finished his Bachelor of Arts in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1980. The next year, Berry graduated from Syracuse University with a Masters of Public Administration.

Starting out his career in state government, where he served from until 1985, he moved on to a career in the federal system. His first federal government job was as legislative director for U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer and associate staffer on the House Appropriations Committee from 1985 to 1994. Berry assisted Hoyer on employment issues of the federal government, and played a leading role in negotiations that led to the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990, which established the locality pay system.

Thereafter, from 1994 to 1995, Berry served as Deputy Assistant Secretary and acting Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement in the U.S. Treasury Department.

Then he served two years as Director of Government relations at the Smithsonian Institution. Berry was then appointed Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at the U.S. Department of the Interior in the Clinton administration, from 1997 to 2001.

At the Interior Department, Berry improved oversaw the expansion of department programs to improve employees' work-life balance, and held town hall meetings with Interior employees and used their suggestions to upgrade their work experience. He also worked to create a complaint procedure for employees who experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation, to expand relocation benefits and counseling services to domestic partners of employees, to establish a liaison to gay and lesbian workers, and to eliminate discriminatory provisions of the National Park Service's law enforcement standards.

He also helped establish an office supply store for Interior employees, which he staffed with disabled workers. Berry oversaw one of the largest budgetary increases in the department's history.

Prior to joining the Obama administration, Berry pursued his interest in environmental conservation as the director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and subsequently as director of the National Zoo.

As director he worked with Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney to reconcile twenty years of financial records, improve management, and conserve wildlife habitat through public-private partnerships.

On October 1, 2005, he was appointed from to serve as director of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, which had been found to have shortcomings in record keeping and maintenance. Berry created a strategic planning and modernization process for the zoo.This included a twenty year capital plan, securing $35 million in funding to provide for fire protection, and beginning renovations to animal houses.

In 2009, President Obama nominated Berry to his current position as director of the Office of Personnel Management on March 4, 2009. The nomination hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on March 26, 2009, led to expectation of easy confirmation, despite opposition from conservatives based on Berry's sexual orientation. In the hearing he stated he supported any effective employee compensation system, but that the federal government had the obligation to give employees with comparable job performances similar pay and treatment. He pledged to preserve veterans preference and supplement it with training programs to prepare veterans for federal jobs, and promised reviews of proposals to improve the security clearance and hiring processes. He also emphasized the importance for agencies to use all recruitment tools, citing relocation benefits that could keep agencies competitive with the private sector, and stated he would create a strategic plan and set performance goals for the Office of Personnel Management. Berry had already previously stated he supported benefits for same-sex partners of federal employees and a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

After being confirmed by the Senate in April, he became responsible for managing the human resources of the federal government and is responsible for recruiting, hiring and benefits policies for 1.9 million federal employees. This appointment made him the highest appointed
openly gay federal employee in the U.S.

With his appointment came accolades from the LGBT and mainstream communities. “The selection of John Berry is a meaningful step forward for the LGBT community,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Humans Rights Campaign. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, described Berry as the “perfect choice for the OPM. He’s smart, courageous, and has all the right experience in policy and in politics.”

That same year, Berry served as the keynote speaker for the International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference in San Francisco.

Berry’s government career has taken him around the globe and literally to the ends of the earth. He is one of the few Americans to have stood on both the North and South Poles. There is a mountain in Antarctica named after him known as the Berry Bastion.

He and his partner of over a decade, Curtis Yee, make their home in Washington, D.C.

“Each time we act against discrimination, we add a ring of life to the American tree of liberty.”


A Special Austin in Israel Update:

Today Austin and their group visited Masada, the fortress rising above the Dead Sea where the last Jewish fighters held out against Rome for three years until they met their tragic end in the Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire. Masada has become a modern symbol of Jewish survival.Then they went below sea level to experience the Dead Sea.

THE DEAD SEA. - AUS10

The Dead Sea is not only known for the incredible buoyancy of is salty waters, but the effect it's mud has on the skin.Looks like the guys got down to their 'roos and were "muddin up 4 soft skin"