Michelle went to graduate school and studied for a career in archaeology. Michelle Schohn and Mary Glantz met in 199 and became partners. Michelle gave up a budding career in archaeology and joined the Foreign Service simply because of the hassles she encountered when her partner was based in Azerbaijan, shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Mary works for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO). Mary and Michelle, along with countless other partners, have been subject to unequal treatment by the US State Department. In 2002, Mary got posted to Azerbaijan said goodbye to her partner. Michelle chose not to go with her for a number of reasons, mainly because the lack of equality between partners and spouses.

Spouses of heterosexual FSOs receive certain benefits to protect their safety and security while they're living abroad. Access to medical facilities, emergency evacuation assistance, should a threatening situation arise, and holding of a diplomatic passport and visa are just some of the benefits their spouses receive.

However, those same benefits are not available to the partners of same sex couples. Michelle felt that safety would be in great danger if she decided to go without those benefits.

One of her partner's colleagues got married and his spouse immediately got a diplomatic passport, but Schohn was treated no differently than any American tourist. Because of the difficulties, she ended up flying to Azerbaijan a month at a time to stay with her partner, and received no housing allowance for staying home.

At one point, during violent protests, "had there been an evacuation, we would have had to pay to evacuate me," she said.

Once Schohn joined the Foreign Service, she said, the department has been very good to them, posting the two together in Jerusalem then back in Washington, though same-sex couples technically cannot bid for jobs in tandem.