Dominican cardinal greets news of gay U.S. ambassador with anti-homosexual slur



The Roman Catholic cardinal in the Dominican Republic responded on Thursday to news that President Barack Obama had nominated an openly gay man as ambassador to the island nation by calling him a 'maricón' -- slang for 'faggot' or 'sissy' -- during a press conference.

Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez took questions on Thursday in the capital city of Santo Domingo about the appointment of James 'Wally' Brewster, an Obama campaign donation 'bundler,' as his nation's top emissary from Washington, D.C.

Asked to shift topics to a question about agriculture, the high-ranking clergyman brought laughs from reporters by saying, ' We went from faggots and lesbians to chickens, now?'



'In the United States anything can happen,' he complained. 'But there's no one in this country who doesn't know what my position is on the matter.'

The press conference came three days before an annual gay pride parade in Santo Domingo.

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Gay Pride marchers in Santo Domingo held signs on Sunday reading (R) 'Welcome Mr. Ambassador James "Wally" Brewster' just days after the Dominican Republic's top Catholic clergyman called Brewster the Spanish equivalent of 'faggot' during a press conference Dominican Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez (R) used a gay slur to refer to James 'Wally' Brewster (L), nominated to be his country's top emissary from the United States. Brewster is a senior managing partner at the Chicago consulting firm SB&K Global

Buzzfeed reported on a translation of remarks at the same press conference from , as first reported in the Dominican newspaper La Opinión and later by the Associated Press .



'I hope he does not arrive in the country, because I know if he comes he is going to suffer and will have to leave,” Monsignor Pablo Cedano said of Brewster.

He called it 'a lack of respect,' according to Buzzfeed's translation, that Obama would send 'a person of this kind as an ambassador.'



However, Cedano added, 'We don’t despise the person.'

Cardinal Rodriguez said the church wouldn't have an official position on Brewster's nomination to serve the majority-Catholic country.



'We don't have to do anything,' he explained. 'It's the government's job to accept them. They are interested in advancing their agenda, but they have to know there are many people in the world who are against that, both in Christian and non-Christian governments.'

'Ask the Muslim world what they think about that, in addition to Christians and Evangelicals.'

Gay ambassadors, past and present: James Hormel (L) was the first openly gay U.S. ambassador, posted in Luxembourg during the Clinton presidency. David Huebner is the current Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He has served as general counsel to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)



Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez answered a question about agriculture by laughing: 'We went from faggots and lesbians to chickens, now?'

A 2010 U.S. State Department survey found that the Dominican Republic is 68.9 per cent Roman Catholic and 18.2 per cent Evangelical Christian. Just 10.6 per cent say they practice no religion.

One Spanish-speaking source who has spent five years in the Dominican Republic told MailOnline that the word 'maricón' is equivalent to 'faggot' or 'queen' in English, but can also be used to insult gay men as 'sissies' or 'wusses.'

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo did not respond to a request for comment emailed in English.

But some journalists in the Dominican Republic are predicting broad resentment toward the U.S. over Brewster's nomination.

Writing in the newspaper Acento , columnist Jose Alberto Ortiz said 'Obama knows that a large majority of the Dominican population rejects [the idea] that two people of the same sex can unite in matrimony and form a family.'

'As it is not possible to convince the population of his ideology, he has opted to impose it - a typical act of an imperialist government.'

The June 30 gay pride parade in the Dominican Republic's capital city was a minor show of political power in a very conservative Catholic country

State Department spokesman Daniel Foote (L) said Brewster would be in the Dominican Republic as a diplomat, not a gay-rights activist. Rufus Gifford (L), an openly gay man who was finance chief at the campaign organization Obama For America, is slated to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Denmark



U.S. Embassy spokesman Daniel Foote, currently the acting Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, told the Associated Press that 'Brewster arrives as an ambassador, he's not coming here as an activist for the gay community.'

Rev. Cristobal Cardozo, leader of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity in that country, said Brewster's presence in Santo Domingo would be 'an insult to good Dominican customs.'

If he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Brewster would become the James "Wally" Brewster would be the seventh U.S. ambassador in history to be openly gay. The first was philanthropist James Hormel, appointed Ambassador to Luxembourg by President Bill Clinton in 1999.



President Obama has nominated five gay men to top diplomatic posts in the past month alone.

They include Brewster, former Obama for America finance chief Rufus Gifford (Denmark), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Baer (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), former Office of Personnel Management director John Berry (Australia) and former HBO executive James Costos (Spain) .

Wild card: While a bishop in Argentina, Pope Francis advocated for the idea of accepting gay civil unions. But more recently, he cautioned French Catholics against accepting gay marriages, calling them 'fashions and ideas of the moment'

Government men: Daniel Baer (L), already a deputy assistant secretary of State, will be U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Former Office of Personnel Management director John Berry (R), another openly gay man, is Barack Obama's pick to be Ambassador to Australia

Costos and his partner, decorator Michael Smith, bundled more than $1.1 million in donations for President Obama's re-election. Brewster, too, was in that exclusive $1 million-and-over club.



Other than the Dominican Republic, Spain is the only other majority-Catholic country among those expected to welcome gay U.S. ambassadors this year. But gay marriage has been legal in Spain since 2005, following moves by that country's socialist government to liberalize social policies.

In addition to his role as a senior managing partner at the Chicago consulting firm SB&K Global, Brewster serves as a national LGBT co-chair for the Democratic National Committee. He also sits on the board of the gay-rights Human Rights Campaign Fund.