Posted on 01/12/2002 2:14:54 PM PST by GrandMoM
News headline Retrieved
Gay Ambassador Troubles Embassy Staff
Story: Little attention was drawn to Michael Guest's homosexual relationship with his "partner" during his confirmation process as President Bush's ambassador to Romania. However, those working under Guest in Bucharest now find it difficult to avoid his flaunting of the relationship, according to an American embassy worker who recently spoke with FRC.
Although Guest had been active in a gay and lesbian group within the State Department, he was not publicly identified as being homosexual until his swearing-in on September 18, when Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Guest's "partner," Alex Nevarez, during the ceremony.
Nevarez, a former teacher, relocated to Romania with Guest and now lives with him there in the residence provided to the ambassador by the U.S. government.
According to our source, several families in the embassy community have expressed concern about the ambassador's living arrangement, and at least one will no longer bring their children to embassy social events because they do not want them exposed to the example set by Guest and his "partner."
For example, Guest and Nevarez escorted one another as a couple at the embassy's annual Marine Corps Ball, a highly formal event. "It's causing me to have to compromise the values I raise my family by," the source said.
The appointment of Guest to serve in Romania showed a particular cultural insensitivity, given that the country is a stronghold of the conservative Eastern Orthodox Church.
Our source indicated that the Orthodox Church is represented at virtually all government ceremonies in Romania. One Romanian professor, in a letter to a Bucharest daily newspaper, said that "Romanians . . . cannot comprehend homosexual acts in any other way but as a deviation from the natural order and the world created by the Lord," and he noted that the Guest appointment "generates bewilderment, indignation, and disgust among the Romanians."
Romanian laws relating to homosexuality were recently liberalized, but only under coercion from the European Union, to which Romania hopes to gain entrance. Although Guest has denied he will promote a "gay agenda" as ambassador, his mere presence in Bucharest is already having that effect.
Another person serving at the embassy held a meeting in November to encourage leaders of Romania's fledgling "gay movement." And some embassy employees fear that Bucharest will gain a reputation as a "gay-friendly" post, so that more homosexuals will request assignment there. Ambassador Guest's treatment of same-sex "partners" (including his own) as the equivalent of married spouses is a mere half step away from government endorsement of "same-sex marriage." Not only does this violate the spirit of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (which defines marriage as being between one man and one woman), but it is also a distraction from the important work of our embassy in Romania.
Burgess and Blunt (among others) were homosexual, but Philby pursued women nonstop.
There was a mayor of a major U.S. city who routinely flaunted his mistress. I haven't been hearing any complaints from you or other Freepers about that.
No comporomise on the question of family? Since homosexuals only count for less then 5% of the population, they can only account for that percent of failed marriages, or probably less. If your concern is with protecting families, you had better look to the causes of the other 95% of failed marriages and never-begun marriages, such as rampant fornication and adultery and easy divorce.
Since the sanctity of marriage is apparently not included in the 'core values' that you want to fight for, I don't know what your core values are. They probably don't allow for rock n roll music, 'R' rated movies, or hard liquor. That is great for you, but most people in this country do not hold such blue-nose notions.
Yet they did tolerate and condone slavery. Culture does not always decline. Sometimes we learn how to be better people, how to hew to the golden rule more closely.
Agreed. I was responding to a very categorical statement that 'nowhere, in either Christian or Jewish cultures, religion or beliefs is homosexuality tolerated or condoned.' In fact homosexuality is tolerated and condoned in various Christian and Jewish denominations. If you want to start getting picky about whether Episcopalians are really Christians, that is best left to another thread.
'Proposed penal statutes.' That is right, they were proposed and voted down. Are there any other rejected 18th century bills that you think we should be obeying?
Any so called Christian obsessed with judging others makes me wonder. Perhaps you could all point me to the place in the Bible where they list the penalty yards for each infraction. Absent that, I throw one flag at the gay man, and one at all of you who spew such hate.
Uhh, I am not sure that bite is precisely the word to use...
BTW, there's also a rather wide 'conservative/liberal' spread between various Greek Orthodox parishes in the USA.
In this particular case, it is dangerous to generalize.
Or is she just warning us?
And ex-State staffers who post these phrases can be described as a 'small group of intellectualoid bedwetters.'
Care to trade name-calling, or engage an intelligent debate?
If Guest is absolutely circumspect about his proclivity, good. BETTER if he 'rents' a woman to pretend marriage with--as was done in the older, more sensible times.
Fact is, no matter his competence, in this case, the medium is the message...
There has never been any viable evidence to prove contrary to this fact.
Since the gist of my original comment has seemingly passed you by, let me put it this way: Present the viable evidence to support your above statement.
The fact is that nations simply do not send 'public sinners' as Ambassadors---or didn't; it was an insult. Some ambassadors (and others) of course, turned out to be rather horny--and often were removed.
Seek proof? If the 'bad guy' public figures were convinced of the rectitude of their actions, then they most CERTAINLY would not be clandestine.
Who is being clandestine? If you are referring to Ambassador Guest, the subject of the article, no one has accused him of being clandestine.
Considering all the discussion of Hormel, Clinton's appointed ambassador to Luxembourg, it is worth pointing out that they were happy to have any ambassador from America. Bush hasn't even bothered to nominate a replacement for him yet. Romania, on the other hand, is getting a career professional diplomat who is an expert on EU and Nato matters. the Romanian government is pragmatic enough to realize that they are getting the best person for the job, someone who can help them work their way into the EU and Nato.
Excuse me, but I when in my previous post did I state that I agreed with Thomas Jefferson that sodomites should be put to death? I was making the point that at one time in our nation's history the perversion of sodomy was considered an abomination. The fact that a man of Jefferson's stature would propose such a penalty is indicative of that. We have indeed fallen quite far.
Ironically, the modern sodomites have brought death upon themselves with HIV.
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