US Ambassador To Dominican Republic Celebrates Pride With His Husband

This month, U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, James “Wally” Brewster, and his husband Bob Satawake are marking LGBT Pride month with a powerful video uploaded to the embassy’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. The couple of 25 years used the six-minute video to address an array of issues, from the problems of state-sponsored discrimination and the disproportionally high rates of suicide among LGBT youth, to the specific aims of U.S. foreign policy and the situation in the Dominican Republic.

While homosexuality is legal in the Caribbean nation of 10.4 million, gay people do not enjoy equal rights or protections under the law. Religious leaders voiced their disapproval of the appointment of Brewster last year, and even called for a national day of protest in July. Yet, while acknowledging a degree of opposition from sectors within both the United States and the Dominican Republic, Brewster and Satawake, who were married on November 22, the same day Brewster was sworn it, say that the vast majority of people they’ve interacted with have embraced them at every turn.

Brewster describes Pride month as a celebration of “life, diversity, inclusion, compassion and equality.” While religious figures like Evangelical Confraternity leader Cristobal Cardozo describes the appointment of a gay ambassador as “an insult to good Dominican customs” and values, Brewster refutes this, noting that the country was at the forefront of the extension of equality as an original signer of the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The heartfelt video sends a powerful message, and accurately reflects President Obama’s determination to further LGBT rights beyond the borders of the United States. In solidarity with LGBT people around the world, Satawake says that you “need no one’s acceptance for who you are, and who you love.” However, it’s perhaps what Brewster says early on that best encapsulates this message of love and hope for a future free from inequality – quite simply, “isn’t it time to stop hating?” TNCRM