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Obama’s 6 Gay U.S. Ambassadors Are Leading the Global Fight for LGBT Rights

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From Battling Bigotry in the Dominican Republic to Achieving Reality TV Stardom in Denmark, President’s Out Appointees Have Made Their Mark

President Barack Obama’s commitment to inclusion has been rendered concrete by his appointments, which have helped make the face of America’s government more representative of its people. In addition to a record number of racial and ethnic minorities, he has appointed a record number of LGBT officials, including judges and ambassadors who require Senate confirmation.

Before Obama’s presidency, there had been only two openly gay U.S. ambassadors. The first, James C. Hormel, was nominated by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to Luxembourg in October 1997. Although Hormel was eminently qualified for the post and quickly won approval from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was subjected to an ugly confirmation battle during which he was defamed and belittled by homophobic GOP senators such as Jesse Helms and John Ashcroft. His nomination was effectively blocked by Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who refused to schedule a vote.

Finally, in May 1999, to the outrage of some Republicans, Clinton named Hormel ambassador via a “recess appointment.”Â

In 2001, to little public controversy, career foreign service officer Michael E. Guest was nominated as ambassador to Romania by President George W. Bush and became the first openly gay ambassadorial nominee confirmed by the Senate. Guest served as ambassador until 2003 and then in the State Department until his retirement in 2007.

At his retirement ceremony, Guest bitterly criticized Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice (and by extension Bush) for the discrimination faced by LGBT employees and specifically for the benefits denied to their same-sex partners. He made clear that his decision to retire was a direct result of this discrimination:

“For the past three years, I’ve urged the Secretary and her senior management team to redress policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees. Absolutely nothing has resulted from this. And so I’ve felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner, who is my family, and service to my country. That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the Secretary’s leadership, and a shame for this institution and our country.”

Obama’s Ambassadors

In contrast to the difficulties faced by Hormel and Guest, the ambassadors nominated by Obama have had little difficulty in the confirmation process and received unqualified support from the State Department. In addition, they have been encouraged to make the furtherance of LGBT rights a key part of their portfolio. (Moreover, many of the benefits that Guest complained were denied to his partner during the Bush administration were extended by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009. Others were added after the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional in 2013.)

As Hillary Clinton declared at the United Nations in 2011, under Obama official U.S. policy is that “Gay Rights are Human Rights.”

Obama has appointed seven openly gay ambassadors: U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa David Huebner (who served from 2009 to 2014); U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Daniel Baer; U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra James Costos; U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford; U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic James “Wally” Brewster; U.S. Ambassador to Australia John Berry; and U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius.

Huebner discussing his role as Ambassador to New Zealand:

Costos introducing himself and his partner Michael Smith:

Baer and his husband, Brian Walsh:

Berry introducing himself, and discussing same-sex marriage and his husband, Curtis Yee.Â

Osius and his husband, Clayton Bond, on PBS Newshour:

The six currently serving openly gay ambassadors recently participated in a panel discussion — sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the Harvey Milk Foundation, and GLIFAA, an organization for LGBT foreign service employees — at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

The six participants shared their personal experiences and the obligations of representing not only their country but also the LGBT community.

Particularly interesting is the contrast between the experiences of Brewster in the Dominican Republic, which criminalizes homosexuality, and Gifford in Denmark, a notably gay-friendly country. In one, the ambassador and his husband are beleaguered and sometimes vilified as a gay couple and advocates for LGBT rights. In the other, the ambassador and his husband are celebrated and their wedding became a major social event.

Ambassador Brewster

Brewster, a Chicago businessman who has served as a National LGBT Co-Chair for the Democratic National Committee and on the Board of the Human Rights Campaign, was nominated as Ambassador to the Dominican Republic on June 22, 2013.

His nomination was greeted with hostility from the Dominican Republic’s influential religious establishment. In a press conference, the Dominican Republic’s highest-ranking Catholic official, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, referred to Brewster as a “maricón” — a derogatory term that is usually translated as “faggot.”

Another Catholic official, Monseñor Pablo Cedano, an auxiliary bishop of Santo Domingo, issued a veiled threat against the nominee. “I hope he does not arrive in the country because I know if he comes he is going to suffer and will have to leave,” Cedano said. He added that it was “a lack of respect” that Obama “sent … a person of this kind as an ambassador.”

Evangelical Christians were equally inhospitable. Ex-president of the nation’s Evangelical Confraternity, Cristóbal Cardozo, called the appointment “an insult to good Dominican customs” and said it is inappropriate to send such an ambassador to “a country where homosexual relationships are not approved, neither legally nor morally.”

On November 22, 2013, Brewster was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic by Vice President Joe Biden. Just a few hours later, Brewster married his longtime partner, Bob J. Satawake. The ceremony and reception took place at the Hay-Adams Hotel, overlooking the South Lawn of the White House.

Ambassador Brewster and his husband have persevered in a country that penalizes homosexuality and constitutionally bans same-sex marriage. They have refused to allow the hostility of homophobes to deter their commitment to equal rights.

They have engaged the attacks forthrightly and with dignity, always conscious that their very presence in the country gives hope to those who cannot speak out on their own behalf. They know that their openness as a gay couple itself makes a powerful statement:

Brewster especially infuriated his detractors when he and Satawake met with Dominican LGBT leaders, prompting the Dominican Republic’s Ambassador to the Vatican to protest.

In honor of Pride 2014, the ambassador produced this video:

In June 2016, Ambassador Brewster announced that he and his husband would participate in the Dominican Republic’s Pride Caravan:

Ambassador Gifford

Gifford, the son of a Boston banking family and a former film producer, came to political prominence as a prodigious fundraiser, first for John Kerry’s 2004 campaign, and then for Obama. In the 2008 campaign, he raised some $80 million as head of Obama’s Southern California fundraising operation. He subsequently became a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee, and then the finance director of Obama’s re-election campaign. In the latter capacity, he is believed to have raised more than a billion dollars.

Gifford was appointed Ambassador to Denmark in 2013 and quickly became a national celebrity, appearing frequently on Danish radio and television programs. In 2014, he appeared in his own six-episode reality show (or, as he prefers, “documentary”) called I am the Ambassador from America, which followed his professional and personal life over the course of three months.

In the show’s first episode, he said, “the most common question I get is what does an ambassador do, and the only way you can explain it to people is by living it.” Thus, the show attempted to answer the question by inviting viewers to follow him during his work and in his life more generally.

The show was a surprise hit and was renewed for a second season. It won the Danish equivalent of an Emmy and made Gifford a familiar face and personality, especially since he so freely shared so many personal aspects of his life, including his upbringing in a small, wealthy Massachusetts town, his coming out experience, and his relationship with his partner Dr. Steven DeVincent, a Provincetown veterinarian.

But as Danish media critic Mads Hvas Jensen has observed, the show did more than highlight Gifford himself. It also advanced American diplomacy. Gifford has understood the strategic use of television to present American foreign policy in a favorable light, especially to young people. From this perspective, even Gifford’s openness about his sexuality and his advocacy for LGBT rights can be seen a means of demonstrating the advances made by the Obama administration in recent years.

Among the major recent advances in American civil rights was the achievement of marriage equality throughout the nation on June 26, 2015. Hence, it was not surprising that in October 2015, Gifford and DeVincent decided to marry, and to feature their wedding on the television show.

They also made the decision to be married not in the U.S. nor even in the American embassy, but in Copenhagen’s City Hall, where they were wed by the Lord Mayor in the same gold-filigreed room in which the world’s first legally recognized same-sex civil unions were performed in 1989.

The decision to wed in Denmark was “to be a statement,” DeVincent told Vogue. “We got married in the town hall in Copenhagen because it was the location of the first same-sex civil union. We also very much wanted to have the wedding in Denmark, because once Rufus became ambassador, we knew that was going to be our home for the next three and a half years. It was going to be the longest we’ve ever lived in one place together.” He added, “Once we were there, the country was so welcoming to us and we wanted also to show our appreciation.”

In the video below, an episode from PBS Newshour, Gifford is profiled:

Ambassador Gifford has spoken in favor of LGBT rights and participated in Pride parades not only in liberal Copenhagen, but also in other less accepting areas of his purview, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands. For example,  Gifford and DeVincent and members of the embassy staff participated in the Faroese Pride Celebrations on July 27, 2016, which were attended by 10 percent of the population.

Conclusion

America’s openly gay ambassadors are an impressive group. Some, such as Ambassadors Costos and Gifford have been chosen, as is a long honored and bipartisan custom, because of their political and personal connections to the president. Others, such as Ambassadors Baer and Osius, were chosen because of their academic or cultural expertise. The ambassadors have different styles and face different challenges, but all have distinguished themselves in their jobs.

In addition to the customary diplomacy that they practice, however, they also serve as living symbols of American progress in human rights.

When they march in Pride celebrations, for example, they make an important statement about American values in general and about American policy under Obama in particular.

When Ambassador Berry answers a question about same-sex marriage, he is careful not to interject himself into Australia’s fractious debate on the issue, but he nevertheless furthers the quest for marriage equality by offering the example of his own marriage.

Similarly, the high-profile weddings of Ambassadors Gifford in Copenhagen and Baer in Vienna have also helped normalize same-sex relationships here and abroad, as has the example of Ambassador Osius and his husband and children in Vietnam. In August, Osius and Bond renewed their vows in a ceremony presided over by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and attended by several LGBT rights advocates. “We thought it might be meaningful not only to us, but to the LGBT community in Vietnam,” Osius said.

The dignity and resoluteness of Ambassador Brewster in the face of insult offers hope to those who are unable to stand up to homophobia themselves; and Baer’s denunciation of Russia’s anti-propaganda law gains increased credibility because of his openness as to his own sexuality.

The appointment of openly gay ambassadors helps fulfill President Obama’s campaign pledge to make the face of the American government more representative of the nation’s people. But it is does more than that. It also announces to the world that in the U.S., opportunities are not limited because of whom one loves, and it illustrates concretely that the country’s much-touted support for human rights includes LGBT rights.

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Musk Complying With Federal Laws White House Says — Will Not Release Disclosure

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insists President Donald Trump’s Director of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, is complying with all federal laws. The Trump administration is under growing pressure to release Musk’s financial disclosure form and any conflict of interest waiver the President may have signed, if there is one.

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, who wrote the best-selling book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” made a rare appearance inside the White House Press Briefing Room on Wednesday to challenge Musk’s actions.

“You talked about the transparency with DOGE and Elon Musk,” Haberman reminded Leavitt. “There is a conflict of interest law in place that says that people who have personal interests can’t interact with government entities that could touch on those. Has President Trump signed a waiver for Elon Musk, does such a thing and exist, if it does, will you guys release it in the interest of transparency that he’s committed to?”

READ MORE: ‘Demolition Plan’: Dems Warn DOGE Guts Government to Empower Billionaires, Harm Americans

“I have not seen the law that you are referring to,” Leavitt was quick to respond. “What I can tell you is that Elon Musk is, I’ve confirmed before, is a special government employee. He is filing the proper financial disclosure. And he is complying with all applicable federal laws.”

“As you also heard, Elon addressed this directly yesterday in the alleged conflict of interest, and he said everything he’s doing is very public, and if you all perceive a conflict of interest, you’re welcome to bring that up.”

“And as the president said, if he feels like Elon is engaging in something that’s a conflict of interest, he will tell Elon not to do that,” she claimed. “Elon also said yesterday that before he moves forward with anything, he consults with the president of the United States. So, um, we’re very confident with the ethics and the guardrails that have been put in place here.”

On Tuesday during his Oval Office press conference, Elon Musk told reporters that there is no conflict of interest.

Musk’s SpaceX reportedly received a $38.8 million contract from NASA this week.

CNN on Tuesday reported that Musk has not filed and will not file a public financial disclosure form.

“Musk, speaking in the Oval Office, sought to underscore his belief that ‘transparency is what builds trust,’ and insisted that all of his team’s efforts were being made public on DOGE’s social media accounts and website,” CNN reported. “But he also seemed to chafe at some of the scrutiny he was receiving, likening it to a ‘daily proctology exam.'”

READ MORE: ‘Trumpflation’: Blaming Biden, Trump Slammed for Breaking ‘Day One’ Promise as Prices Jump

“Earlier in the day, a White House official said Musk would not need to file a public financial disclosure, allowing the world’s richest man to skirt public scrutiny of his potential conflicts. Musk’s various companies have billions of dollars in government contracts.”

“As an unpaid special government employee who is not a commission officer, he will file a confidential financial disclosure report per the norm,” a White House official told CNN, the news outlet reported.

“We wouldn’t let him” have a conflict of interest or a lack of transparency, President Trump assured reporters Tuesday.

But The New York Times on Tuesday reported that the White House had not responded to its request “for a copy of the waiver, a document that is required under federal law to be released. Ethics waivers are typically drafted based on conflicts identified through a financial disclosure filing, so it is possible that no waiver has been prepared yet.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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‘Demolition Plan’: Dems Warn DOGE Guts Government to Empower Billionaires, Harm Americans

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During Wednesday’s DOGE Subcommittee Hearing on Government Waste, House Democrats slammed President Donald Trump’s Director of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, and DOGE, which they accused of being a “demolition plan” for the federal government designed to empower billionaires while harming everyday Americans, and especially those who rely on social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare.

In a damning display, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia detailed what he said were Musk’s plans to launch a “power grab” inside the federal government, hurt “the American social safety net” and destroy “our institutions.” The California Democrat also made a few mocking remarks about the billionaire he called “President Musk.”

“I find it ironic, of course, that our chairwoman, Congresswoman Greene, is in charge of running this committee,” Rep. Garcia said of far-right Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. “Now, in the last Congress, Chairwoman Greene literally showed a dick pic in our oversight congressional hearing, so I thought I’d bring one as well.”

“Now, this, of course, we know is President Elon Musk,” Garcia joked, as a staffer put up a huge photo of the billionaire in white tie and tails, to laughter from the gallery. “He’s also the world’s richest man. He was the biggest political donor in the last election. He has billions of dollars in conflicts of interest, and we know that he is leading a power grab, also abided by and encouraged by Donald Trump and of course, the chairwoman, Congresswoman Greene.”

READ MORE: ‘Trumpflation’: Blaming Biden, Trump Slammed for Breaking ‘Day One’ Promise as Prices Jump

Garcia pointed to a large board listing several federal agencies he suggested DOGE is trying to destroy.

He called DOGE “a demolition plan that’s going to run through our government,” and said that “DOGE is trying to abolish the Department of Education. That means opportunities denied to kids. It means you’re ripping away opportunities for children with disabilities, who are dependent on this money.”

“You’re also halting medical research, which is also critical, which we have to also stop. The idea that we are going to eliminate or destroy the National Institutes of Health, the NIH, is crazy.”

“Let’s talk about the Department of Labor. We’re talking about protections for working people across this country, where people can actually complain about abuses their companies are making against them and their coworkers. Workers are now going to be in danger,” he warned.

“And let’s also talk about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Another huge issue for us. Think about the scammers and fraudsters that’ll be empowered across this country, because Elon Musk,” he alleged, “wants — essentially, these companies [to] have more power over consumers and over people across this country.”

“Look at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” Garcia continued. “That is actually what’s being discussed partly today. Healthcare, we’re talking about being denied to millions of poor people, working-class people across this country. And now, of course, they’re onto their largest target: The U.S. Social Security Administration. We’re talking about this the destruction of the actual social safety net in this country. We know that one in five Americans collect Social Security — seniors, disabled people. This entire plan is about hurting the American social safety net and destroying our institutions.”

The California Democrat continued to attack DOGE.

“This committee wants to empower the richest person in the world to hurt people so they can take all of this money that they so-call want to save and then give it to themselves, their companies, and their billionaire friends,” he charged. “That is the attack that is happening in this committee and across this country, and it’s important that we call it out.”

“We also know, of course, that Elon Musk is sending his unqualified DOGE staff to carry out this agenda across all these agencies. And in some cases, actually teenage staffers. No accountability, no experience, and problematic records. They’re trying to rob you and they’re probably a minor.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar also attacked Musk and President Trump, for firing numerous Inspectors General while ignoring what he says is the $8 million per day the federal government gives to Musk and his companies.

RELATED: ‘Not Legal’: Trump May Dissolve Dept. of Education in Days, Democrat Warns

“Five Inspector Generals that were looking into Elon Musk’s companies were fired by the Trump-Musk administration,” the Democrat from Texas charged. “TheseInspector Generals who are independent, protected by law, they are the people that find the waste, fraud, and abuse and found many of the cases of waste, fraud, and abuse that have been brought up today — fired because they were looking into Elon Musk at the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, which is supposed to protect workers from getting their unions busted by folks like Elon Musk — made functionally broken by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that really is the Department of Government Efficiency for Elon Musk, not for you.”

“They are trying to shut down the Department of Education, the Department of Labor,” he continued. “You know what he doesn’t seem to be looking into? His own contracts.”

“Just last year, Elon Musk was promised three billion from close to 100 contracts with the federal government,” Casar alleged.

He also said that “the average person in this country who survives on Social Security, one of our seniors who’s worked their entire life,” gets $65 a day from Social Security.

“We’re not looking into Elon Musk’s eight million dollars a day. This subcommittee, chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene and the House Republicans, is looking into your grandmother’s $65 a day.”

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‘Trumpflation’: Blaming Biden, Trump Slammed for Breaking ‘Day One’ Promise as Prices Jump

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President Donald Trump is blaming his predecessor, President Joe Biden, after inflation jumped far more than expected.

“Biden inflation up!” Trump wrote on social media Wednesday, taking no responsibility for breaking his campaign promise to lower prices “on day one.”

On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Labor reported inflation jumped to levels not seen since last June, and Americans are being forced to pay far higher prices at the supermarket, especially for basic staples like eggs.

“Consumer prices roared higher in January, driving inflation up to 3%,” CNN reported, calling it “the fastest monthly pace since September 2023.” Economists had expected inflation to come in at an annual rate of 2.9%.

“Egg prices shot up 15.2% from December to January, the fastest increase that index has seen since 2015, according to the report,” CNN added. “They’re up 53% year over year.”

READ MORE: ‘Not Legal’: Trump May Dissolve Dept. of Education in Days, Democrat Warns

The jump in inflation makes it far less likely the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, which remain high as they try to battle inflation. The Associated Press reported on Wednesday, “the cost of groceries, gasoline and rents rose, a disappointment for families and businesses struggling with higher costs and likely underscoring the Federal Reserve’s resolve to delay further interest rate cuts.”

“Grocery prices have skyrocketed,” candidate Trump said back in August on the campaign trail. Trump has bragged that he won the election on his promise to lower the cost of “groceries.”

“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one,” Trump said, as multiple news outlets, including The New York Post and CNN, have reported.

After the election, Trump acknowledged his pledge to reduce the price of groceries.

“I won on groceries,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in December.“Very simple word, groceries. Like almost — you know, who uses the word? I started using the word — the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down.”

But Trump appears to have done little to even try to bring down prices, including the cost of food.

“Now, maybe Americans did send Trump back to the White House to lower prices,” MSNBC‘s Jen Psaki wrote late last month, “but during his first week in office — a period of time when presidents typically use their power to make clear what their priorities are — he focused on anything but.

The one step he did appear to take to lower prices was to sign an executive order telling agencies in the executive branch to “take actions that lower prices.”

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“President Trump, who while campaigning vowed to end the ‘inflation nightmare,'” CBS News reported last month, on Inauguration Day “signaled his focus on the high cost of living in the U.S. by signing an executive order that requires ‘all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief’ to Americans.”

“It is critical to restore purchasing power to the American family and improve our quality of life,” the executive order stated.

“To accomplish that, Mr. Trump is ordering the departments and agencies that fall under the executive branch, including the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Energy, to take actions that lower prices for everything from housing and health costs to food and fuel,” CBS added. It is unclear what steps they were supposed to take, or if any did.

Meanwhile, consumers appear to be growing angry, and Wednesday’s inflation news — coupled with Trump’s imposition of a new tariff on all aluminum and steel coming into the United States — is not making it easier for average Americans.

On social media, critics were quick to blame and blast the President.

“Meat prices up 0.6 percent in January, egg prices up 15.2 percent. Too bad Trump is so busy doing corrupt deals with Musk and planning to take over Greenland and Gaza that he can’t pay attention to food prices,” remarked Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Former Biden White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates posted video of Trump’s interview with NBC’s Welker.

“The thing is,” Democratic strategist and Kamala Harris alum Mike Nellis wrote, “Trump didn’t just promise to cool inflation—he said prices would go down. And they aren’t. His tariff threats are already driving prices up everywhere, from groceries to housing, cars, and appliances.”

“Trump took office and inflation immediately went UP. But instead of fixing the economy, he spent his time banning DEI, renaming water, going to the Super Bowl and trying to put hotels on the Gaza strip,” observed frequent commentator Alex Cole, who has nearly 275,000 followers on X.

“They’re calling it TRUMPFLATION. Beautiful word, maybe the best word. The most luxurious inflation—nobody does inflation better than me!” Cole also wrote, mocking Trump and his speaking style.

“Wow,” remarked Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett. “Inflation in the US rose 3% in January, higher than experts predicted for Trump’s first month report.”

After noting increases in the cost of groceries, energy, and eggs, he snarked, “Renaming the Gulf of America should help…”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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