Openly gay Chicagoan James "Wally" Brewster, one of the top LGBT fundraisers for President Obama's 2012 re-election efforts, was nominated June 21 to be U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Brewster would be the seventh openly gay U.S. ambassador, but the nomination has sparked controversy from religious officials in the Caribbean nation.
Brewster currently works as managing partner for SB&K Global, a strategic consulting firm. During 2010-2012, he was a co-chair for Obama's re-election campaign and a member of the campaign's "Leadership Circle." He also served as a co-chair of LGBT issues for the Democratic National Committee and is on the Board of Human Rights Campaign. He and his partner, Bob Satawake, a managing partner at Jameson Sotheby's International Real Estate, together bundled more than $500,000 for Obama in the last election.
In a statement announcing the nomination, Obama said of Brewster and his fellow nominees, "These men and women have demonstrated knowledge and dedication throughout their careers. I am grateful they have chosen to take on these important roles, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come."
But the nomination has drawn anger from conservative religious groups in the Dominican Republic. Rev. Cristobal Cardozo, leader of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity, told the Associated Press that Brewster's presence would be "an insult to good Dominican customs."
Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, president of the Conference of the Dominican Episcopate, said, "You can expect anything from the U.S." Speaking to television reporters this past weekend, the Cardinal used the word "maricones"—"faggots"—to describe Brewster, a word he has used to publically describe gays in the past. When a reporter followed up questions about Brew with one about agriculture, he asked, "So we're going from faggots and lesbians to chickens?"
The U.S. Embassy tried to diffuse the situation June 28 with a statement from spokesman Daniel Foote, who is currently the acting ambassador. "Brewster arrives as an ambassador. He's not coming here as an activist for the gay community," said Foote.
Members of the Dominican Republic's LGBT community have pushed back to some extent; many participants in Santo Domingo's Gay Pride celebration June 30 held signs in support of Brewster. "It's a great honor for our country to have someone of his prominence be named ambassador," Estefanie Hernandez, a member of activist organization GAYP, told the Miami Herald, "To have someone from our community to serve as ambassador is a show of support."
There are no laws against homosexuality in the Dominican Republic, but the LGBT community has been subject to harassment and the nation's constitution bans same-sex marriage. Nevertheless, an informal poll by the newspaper HOY said that 60 percent of its readers disagreed with the Church reaction.
The administration of President Danilo Medina was initially silent on the matter. But officials in the Dominican Republic's U.S. Embassy admitted in a statement to Foreign Policy that Brewster's nomination would not have been announced had the government not accepted the nomination.
"Indeed, the standard procedure is for a Government to grant the agreement for a proposed Ambassadorship before the nominating country announces its decision," the statement read. "…It is the position of the Government of the Dominican Republic that a person's sexual preference is strictly a personal matter and it looks forward to working constructively with Mr. Brewster in his official capacity once his nomination is approved by the US Senate."
Brewster is one of five gay men nominated for ambassadorial duties last month. John Berry, formerly the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel and the highest-ranking openly gay official in the Obama administration, was nominated as U.S. ambassador to Australia. Former HBO executive James Costos was tapped as ambassador to Spain, while Rufus Gifford, a former finance official for the Democratic National Convention, Obama for America and the Presidential Inaugural Committee, was nominated as U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Lastly, Daniel Baer, now serving as deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, was nominated to be ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
When reached for comment, Brewster told Windy City Times that he could not be interviewed until after the nomination process was complete.
