SATURDAY POLITICS: There are now 5 Openly Gay U.S. Ambassadors

Wally Brewster has been approved (unanimously) by the United States Senate as the new Ambassador to the Dominican Republic (my dream job, LOL). Brewster previously served as a board member of the Human Rights Campaign, which sent out a notice about Brewster's confirmation:

Prior to this year, three openly gay people had served as U.S. Ambassadors (Jim Hormel, Michael Guest and David Huebner).  Just this year, five openly gay people have been confirmed as Ambassadors (Brewster, along with John Berry in Australia, James Costos in Spain, Rufus Gifford in Denmark, and Daniel Baer as ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe). It is a testament to President Obama and the U.S. Senate that the sexual orientation of these ambassadors is irrelevant to their qualifications for their posts.  All Americans should be proud to have these fine public servants representing the interests of the United States.

Of course one might notice that all five LGBT individuals are white gay men, which is not indicative of the diversity of the LGBT community, but is representative of the people who get rewarded with ambassadorships through political appointments!

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Eye Candy: Zenith Harvey (in black and white)

Zenith Harvey has appeared as Eye Candy on the blog twice before (June 17, 2013 and April 22, 2013). According to his Model Mayhem profile, he is a 27-year-old model of Dominican descent who is 6'2" and 184 pounds.

Enjoy these pictures of Zenith (great name!) in black-and-white!

Obama Nominates John Berry As Ambassador to Australia

John Berry was the highest ranked openly LGBT appointee

 in the Obama Administration from 2009-2013

Finally! As has been rumored for months since he left his previous post as head of the Office of Personnel Management in April, President Obama has finally nominated John Berry to become Ambassador to Australia. If his nomination is approved by the United States Senate, Berry will become the first openly gay ambassador to a G-20 country and follows on the heels of the nominations announced last week of two gay men to ambassadorships in Denmark and Spain (two countries which have equal marriage rights for same-sex couples).

The same day the Berry nomination was announced, another gay man named Wally Brewster was nominated to become Ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

John Berry served as the Director of the Office of Personnel Management from April 2009 to April 2013.  Previously, he was the Director of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park from 2005 to 2009, and the Executive Director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation from 2000 to 2005.  From 1997 to 2000, Mr. Berry served as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget at the Department of the Interior.  From 1995 to 1997, he was Director of Government Relations and Senior Policy Advisor at the Smithsonian Institution.  He joined the federal government in 1994 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement at the Department of Treasury.  Before joining the Department of Treasury, Mr. Berry was the Legislative Director for U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer.  Mr. Berry received a B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park and an M.P.A. from Syracuse University.

James “Wally” Brewster, Jr. is the Senior Managing Partner for SB&K Global, a brand strategy and consumer dynamics consulting firm based in Chicago, Illinois.  Before starting SB&K Global in 2010, he was an Officer and Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications with General Growth Properties (GGP), a real estate investment trust headquartered in Chicago.  Prior to joining GGP in 1996, Mr. Brewster worked in management at several real estate companies in Texas, including The Rouse Company and the DeBartolo Corporation.  Earlier in his career, he held marketing and management positions with Carla Francis, Inc. and the Jim Collins Company in Dallas, Texas.  Mr. Brewster is a National LGBT Co-Chair for the Democratic National Committee and currently serves on the Board of the Human Rights Campaign Fund.

That brings the number of openly gay men who have been nominated as ambassadors in the Obama administration in the month of June to five! It should also be noted that the current Ambassador to New Zealand (which is basically next door to Australia) is openly gay David Heubner.

Eye Candy: Zenith Harvey

Zenith Harvey is a 27-year-old model of Dominican descent who, as you can see above, has a winning smile and  a great physique, perfect for photographing. According to his Model Mayhem profile, he is 6'2" 184 pounds and based in New York City.

There are lots of great pictures of him on the Internet, so I am somewhat surprised I haven't featured him as Eye Candy before. David Dust has featured him on his blog before.

Hopefully, we will see a lot more of Zenith (great name!), possibly wearing a lot less, in the future.

Olympiad XXX: 19yo Wins Grenada's 1st Ever Gold

19-year-old athletic sensation Kirani James of my home country of Grenada won the gold medal in the Men's 400m dash at the London Olympics last night. It was Grenada's first medal of any kind despite competing in every Summer Olympics since 1984. James, although only 19, is the reigning World Champion in the 400m and became the first non-American man to complete the one-lap race in under 44 seconds, finishing in 43.94s.

Winning the silver was 18-year-old Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic and the bronze medalist was Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago completing a Caribbean sweep of the event. Also in the final race was the unusual site of twin brothers Kevin and Jonathan Borlée of Belgium, who finished 5th and 6th just 0.02s apart from each other.

But the night belonged to James who in the last few years has begun to put Grenada on the map for his prowess in the 400 meters in a similar way to how Jamaica is now known for world-class sprinters (and deep seated homophobia!)

Caribbean runners (or runners for other countries who are of Caribbean descent) have been dominating the sprints at this year's Olympics with Jamaicans winning both the men's and women's 100m.

Eye Candy: D Rice (reprise)

D Rice is a "phyne brutha" who has been featured Eye Candy before (on January 11, 2010). The good folks at Physique Publishing gave me access to the above shots which they are promoting as birthday cards.

They also provided me some details about D Rice, saying that he is 26-years-old, 6' 1" and 200 pounds. Although he lives in Chicago now, he was born in the Dominican Republic, which by definition makes him both of Caribbean descent and Blatino ethnicity.

Regardless of where he is from, he clearly has the potential to go very far as a model, and is definitely Eye Candy!