I’ve a couple of diplomatic connections on both sides of my family. Two cousins have served in diplomatic positions. My Dad’s nephew served as Third Secretary in the British embassy in Moscow, just as Communism collapsed. He retired shortly afterwards and was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). My Mum’s nephew is a Methodist minister. Shortly after serving in Berlin when the Berlin Wall came down he was appointed as the ecumenical representative of the World Methodist Council to the Vatican.
Throughout history nations have been sending envoys to their neighbours to maintain relatively peaceful relations. Below I’ve listed those known members of the lgbt community who have been appointed as ambassadors or heads of diplomatic missions up to the present day.
Not all of those listed were openly lgbt when they were appointed. There are still too many governments who do not accept homosexuality, and the starting point for any nation who wishes to send an ambassador to a homophobic country is whether one who is openly gay would create a bad response than a heterosexual one.
Nations have to consider other social attitude in the ones to which their ambassadors are sent. There are still nations who would not accept ambassadors on racial, ethnic, gender or religious grounds. There was even a time wen some nations would not accept an ambassador’s from the UK who didn’t have a knighthood.
It’s not always governments who object to foreign ambassadors’ sexuality. There have been several occasions when an ambassador’s sexuality has created a diplomatic incident.
In 2006 the Dutch ambassador to Estonia, Hans Glaubitz, asked to be transferred to another embassy after his partner had received frequent racist and homophobic abuse from member of the public. He and his partner were transferred to Canada.
The Netherlands and Russia have had a delicate relationship in the past decade. The year 2013 was particularly fraught. A team of Dutch film-makers travelled to Russia to make a documentary about lgbt rights. They were deported. Later that year a Russian diplomat in The Hague claimed he was badly beaten up in his home by Dutch police. Despite there being no evidence of physical contact by the police there was a tit-for-tat response in Moscow when an openly gay Dutch diplomat was attacked in his home by members of the public who smeared his home with homophobic slogans.
Less than a year later the Chinese media became filled with homophobic abuse after it was revealed that the British Consul General in Shanghai had married his male partner in the British embassy in Beijing.
It’s not surprising that the Vatican would not openly welcome a gay ambassador. While not saying explicitly that they would not stop Laurent Stefanini from being appointed French ambassador to the Holy See, an alleged source within the Vatican was claimed to have called his possible appointment as “provocation”. In the end the French government sent Laurent to UNESCO as their Permanent Representative.
The following abbrevations and symbol are used:
|
Amb
|
Ambassador
|
|
APEC
|
Asia-Pacific Economic
Co-operation
|
|
Cmmr
|
Commissioner
|
|
Non-res
|
non-resident (when
appointed to several nations)
|
|
OECD
|
Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development
|
|
Perm Rep
|
Permanent Representative
|
|
+
|
in office on 1st
February 2019
|
A glitch during the
posting of the original list led to several names being chopped off the end. Here
is the full list as of February 2019.
|
LGBT
AMBASSADORS
|
|
|
AUSTRALIA
|
|
|
Brendan
Berne
|
Amb
to APEC 2015-7
Amb
to France & non-res to
Algeria,
Mauritania & Monaco 2017+
|
|
Neal
Blewett (b.1933)
|
High
Commr to UK 1994-6
|
|
Stephen
Brady (b.1959)
|
Amb
to Sweden & non-res to Denmark,
Norway,
Finland, Iceland, Latvia
&
Lithuania 1998-2003, Netherlands 2004-7,
Amb to
France & non-res to Morocco 2014-17
|
|
John
Dauth (b.1947)
|
interim
Chargé d’Affaires in Iran 1983-5
Consul
Gen to New Caledonia 1986-7;
High
Commr to Malaysia 1993-6
High
Commr to New Zealand 2006-8
High
Commr to UK 2008-15
Perm
Rep to UN 2001-6
|
|
Damien
Miller
|
Amb
to Denmark, Iceland & Norway 2013+
|
|
BELIZE
|
|
|
Perla
Perdomo
|
High
Commr to UK 2012+
|
|
CANADA
|
|
|
John
Wendell Holmes (1910-1988)
|
Interim
Chargé d’Affaires 1947-8
Acting
Perm Rep to UN 1950-3
|
|
CHILE
|
|
|
Pedro
Felipe Ramirez (b.1941)
|
Amb
to Venezuela 2014-18
|
|
DENMARK
|
|
|
Jens
Rudolph Dahl (1894-1977)
|
Vice-Consul
in Hamburg 1930
Vice-Consul
in New York 1933
|
|
A.
Carsten Damsgaard (b.1955)
|
Amb
to Israel 2003-8
Amb
to Afghanistan 2010-11
Amb
to Japan 2011-15
Amb
to China & non-res to Mongolia 2015+
|
|
Gustav
Rasmussen (1895-1953)
|
Amb
to Rome 1951-3
|
|
FINLAND
|
|
|
Jussi
Måkinen (1929-1978)
|
Amb
to Algeria & non-res to Tunisia 1963-8
Amb
to Libya 1966-8
Amb
to Vatican 1968-76
Perm
Rep to UN in Vienna 1968-76
|
|
FRANCE
|
|
|
Gerard
Araud (b.1953)
|
Amb
to Israel 2003-6
Perm
Rep to UN 2009-14
Amb
to USA 2014+
|
|
Jérôme
Bonnafont (b.1961)
|
Amb
to India 2007-11
Amb
to Spain 2012-15
|
|
Roger
Karoutchi (b.1951)
|
Amb
to OECD 2009-11
|
|
Laurent
Stefanini (b.1960)
|
Perm
Rep to UNESCO 2016+
|
|
GERMANY
|
|
|
Philipp,
Prince zu Eulenburg
(1847-1921)
|
Amb
to Oldenburg 1888-91
Amb
to Bavaria 1891-3
Amb
to Vienna 1984-1902
|
|
Achim
Holzenberger (b.1959)
|
Human
Rights Rep to Council of Europe
|
|
ISRAEL
|
|
|
Yitzhak
Yanouka
|
Amb
to Angola 2009+
Amb
to Cote d’Ivoire & non-res to
Burkina
Faso, Benin, Togo & Liberia 2014+
|
|
NETHERLANDS
|
|
|
Hans
Glaubitz
|
Amb
to Estonia 2005-6
Consul
Gen in Montreal 2006+
|
|
Gerda
Verburg (b.1957)
|
Perm
Rep to UN Food &
Agriculture
Organisation 2011-6
|
|
NEW
ZEALAND
|
|
|
Sir
Alister McIntosh (1906-1978)
|
Amb
to Rome 1966-70
|
|
POLAND
(government in exile)
|
|
|
Stanisalw
Balinski (1898-1984)
|
Amb to
Czechoslovakia 1944-5
|
|
SPAIN
|
|
|
Rafael
De Bustamante (b.1966)
|
First
Counsellor, Jakarta, Indonesia 2016+
|
|
Ion de
la Riva (b.1959)
|
Amb
to India 2007-10
Perm
Rep to UNESCO 2010-12
|
|
Enrique
Sardá Valls (b.1952)
|
Consul
Gen in Hanover 2003-6
Consul
Gen in Sydney 2006-9
Consul
Gen in Washington DC 2014-17
|
|
SURINAM
|
|
|
Clark
Accord (1961-2011)
|
Amb
to Netherlands 2011
|
|
SWEDEN
|
|
|
Dverker
Åstrom (1915-2012)
|
Perm
Rep to UN 1964-70
Amb
to France 1978-82
|
|
SWITZERLAND
|
|
|
Richard
Hoeppli
|
Hon
Consul in Peking 1940s
|
|
UNITED
KINGDOM
|
|
|
James
Clark (b.1963)
|
Amb
to Luxemburg 2004-9
Consul
Gen in Chicago 2007-10
|
|
Brian
Davidson (b.1964)
|
Consul
Gen in Guangzhou 2006-10
Consul
Gen in Shanghai 2011-15
Amb
to Thailand 2016+
|
|
Sir
John Finch (1626-1682)
|
Min
to Florence 1665-70
Amb
to Constantinople 1672-81
|
|
Judith
Gough (b.1972)
|
Amb
to Georgia 2010-13
Amb
to to Ukraine 2015+
|
|
John
Kittmer (b.1967)
|
Amb
to Greece 2013-6
|
|
Sir
Gilbert Laithwaite (1894-1986)
|
Amb
to Ireland 1949-51
High
Commr to Pakistan 1951-4
|
|
Valentine
Lawford (1911-1991)
|
Chargé
d’Affaires in Tehran 1949-50
|
|
Sir
George Lloyd,
1st
Baron Lloyd (1879-1941)
|
High
Commr in Egypt 1925-9
|
|
Sir
Harold Nicolson (1886-1969)
|
Chargé
d’Affaires in Tehran 1925
Chargé
d’Affaires in Berlin 1928-9
|
|
David
Quarrey (b.1956)
|
Amb
to Israel 2015+
|
|
Simon
Scaddan (b.1944)
|
High
Cmmr to Papua New Guinea 2000-3
|
|
John
Terry (1944-2009)
|
Hon
Consul in Montego Bay, Jamaica
|
|
Sir
George Villiers,
1st
Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628)
|
English
Amb to France 1625
English
Amb Extraordinary to
the
United Provinces (Netherlands) 1625
|
|
Sir
Stephen Wall (b.1931)
|
Amb
to Portugal 1993-5
Perm
Rep to EU 1995-2000
|
|
UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA
|
|
|
Daniel
Baer (b.1977)
|
Amb
to OECD 2013-7
|
|
John
Berry (b.1959)
|
Amb
to Australia 2013-6
|
|
Randy
W. Berry
|
Consul
to Netherlands and
Special
Envoy on LGBT Rights 2015+
|
|
James
“Wally” Brewster jr (b.1960)
|
Amb
to Dominican Rep 2013-7
|
|
James
Buchanan (1791-1868)
(future
US President)
|
Minister
to Russia 1832-3
Minister
to GB 1853-6
|
|
James
Costos (b.1963)
|
Amb
to Spain & non-res to Andorra 2013-7
|
|
Mark
R. Dybul (b.1963)
|
Amb
Global AIDS Co-ordinator 2006+
|
|
Robert
Farmer (1939-2017)
|
Consul
Gen in Bermuda 1994-9
|
|
Tom Gallagher
(1940-2018)
|
Acting
Consul Gen in Guayaquil, Ecuador 1976
|
|
Rufus
Gifford (b.1974)
|
Amb
to Denmark 2013-7
|
|
Richard
Grenell (b.1966)
|
Amb
to Germany 2018+
|
|
Michael
Guest (b.1957)
|
Amb
to Romania 2001-4
|
|
Richard
E. Hoagland (b.1950)
|
Chargé
d’Affaires to Turkmenistan 2007-8
Amb to
Tajikistan & non-res to
Kazakhstan
2008-11
Dep
Amb to Pakistan 2011-13
|
|
James
Hormel (b.1922)
|
Amb
to Luxembourg 1999-2001
|
|
David
Huebner (b.1960)
|
Amb
to New Zealand & Samoa 2009-14
|
|
Theodore
“Ted” Osius III (b.1961)
|
Amb
to Vietnam 2014-7
|
|
Bayard
Taylor (1825-1878)
|
Envoy
to Prussia 1878
|
|
Sumner
Welles (1892-1961)
|
Amb
to Cuba 1933
|
Here's one you missed:
ReplyDeleteRufus Gifford (b. 1974), US Ambassador to Denmark 2013-7. He married his husband, Steven DeVincent, in 2015 in Denmark while Ambassador .
Thanks. I've actually noticed that half of the US ambassadors are missing from the bottom of the list. I don't know why or how thay got cut off but they are on my draught copy. I'll add them ass soon as possible. Thanks again.
ReplyDelete