Senate Confirms Fifth Openly Gay Ambassador Under Trump

WASHINGTON D.C. — (01-03-20) — The Senate confirmed the fifth openly gay ambassador under Trump to serve in Lithuania. The now confirmed Robert Gilchrist makes history by taking the reigns as our new U.S. ambassador to Lithuania, making him the fifth openly gay ambassador to serve in an ambassadorial role in the Trump administration.

The former president of GLIFAA, the affinity group at the State Department for LGBT employees, was confirmed by a simple voice vote along with a slew of other Trump ambassadorial picks without any floor debate or controversy.

It is also worth noting that not one single news media outlet on either side of the political spectrum bothered to cover this historic event for the LGBTQ Community.

Gilchrist the Fifth Openly Gay Ambassador Under Trump to be Confirmed by Senate

Nominated by Trump in July, Gilchrist is a career Foreign Service officer and not known to be a political appointee like other ambassadors Trump as nominated.

During his tough confirmation hearing in October, Gilchrist faced tough questions on Russia. Mainly the continued campaign by President Putin to seek hegemony over former Soviet states like Lithuania.

Amid ongoing concerns about Russia’s interference in elections worldwide, Gilchrist said Lithuania has set up safe guards that could serve as a model to other countries.

“I think if you look through, through some of the recent press, you’ll see how the Lithuanians really in a masterful way have gotten out ahead of an issue before it became an issue domestically,” said Gilchrist in his senate confirmation hearing. “And so, they are indeed at the forefront in many ways I think there’s some things that we could possibly learn from them as well.” said Gilchrist.

Other roles in which Gilchrist has served are deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Estonia , deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Sweden, and the director of Nordic & Baltic Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of European & Eurasian Affairs.

Congratulations to Ambassador Gilchrist on his confirmation.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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