We have yet another gay ambassador working for the U.S.
As the Washington Blade reports, Robert Gilchrist was named the next U.S. ambassador to Lithuania. This makes him the fifth openly gay person to be serving as an ambassador during the Trump administration.
The Senate confirmed this news just before they took a holiday break. Gilchrist is a career Foreign Service worker. He was the former president of GLIFAA, which is an affinity group at the Department of State for LGBTQ employees. He has also worked as the director of the operations center at the U.S. Department of State, for the U.S. embassies in Sweden and Estonia as the deputy chief of mission, and as the director of Nordic and Baltic Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.
We have exciting news to kick off the weekend: Last night, the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert S. Gilchrist to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania! We look forward to greeting him with a hearty “Sveiki atvykę į Lietuvą” in January!#USinLT #WeAreNATO #Lithuania pic.twitter.com/a1dOti1X2R
— U.S. Embassy Vilnius (@USEmbVilnius) December 20, 2019
Gilchrist was voted into the role by the Senate last Thursday along with several other Trump ambassadorial picks. During his confirmation hearing, Gilchrist was questioned thoroughly about any interactions with Russia. Gilchrist noted how Lithuania has also been adamantly fighting off Russia’s attempt to interfere with international elections.
“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,” Gilchrist said. “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.”
Gilchrist joins U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell; U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry; U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Eric Nelson and U.S. Ambassador to Cabo Verde Jeff Daigle as the only openly gay ambassadors for the current U.S. government.
Source: The Washington Blade, CNN
