Diplomats usually influence foreign policy but Bryan Dalton has had an impact on the US government's stand on same-sex partners.

When Bryan Dalton joined the US Department of State Foreign Service in the last years of the Reagan administration, he didn't know of any employees who were open about being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). He probably knew, of course, that there were many gay men like him in the service - the chance to combine serving your country and travelling has always attracted gays and lesbians to the diplomatic services - but you couldn't bring it up, leave alone talk about rights. "From this, I deduced I had to hide my true self, a tremendous stress, " he says.

Today, 24 years later, as chief of the consular section in Chennai, which processes more temporary work visas than any other US consulate office in the world, Dalton has plenty of reasons for stress in his job. But his sexuality isn't one of them.