Welcome Mr Ambassador

The Herald reports:

The United States Senate is expected to confirm an openly gay lawyer – David Huebner – will be its next ambassador to New Zealand.

The appointment has generated some publicity in the United States because it is the Obama administration’s first appointment of an openly gay ambassador.

Mr Huebner is currently a lawyer based in Shanghai for a United States law firm where he specialises in international arbitration and mediation. He also acts as general counsel for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

People may be unaware that both Presidents Clinton and Bush appointed gay Ambassadors. Bush appointed Michael Guest as Ambassador to Romania.

As the US has around 150 Ambassadors, I’d expect around half a dozen of them to be gay, all other things equal.

His law firm bio is here. He currently works in Shanghai, and before that worked as an assistant to a Japanese Diet member. His legal career seems pretty distinguished. His law firm represents 56 of the Fortune 100 companies.

Often Ambassadors are major donors, but as far as I can tell he gave only $3,000 in 2008 – $2,000 to Obama and $1,000 to the DNC.