Fridae

US Secretary of State John Kerry has sworn in Ted Osius III as the first openly gay US Ambassador to serve in East Asia as the new US Ambassador to Vietnam.

Osius was sworn in Dec 10 and is now the 7th openly LGBT person named as a US ambassador under the Barack Obama administration, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Many see this as an important step toward furthering equality rights in the region noted for various degrees of anti-gay legislation.

"Not long ago, that would have literally been impossible. And when Ted first joined the Foreign Service, being open about who you love was grounds for having your security clearance yanked," Secretary Kerry said in a statement. "Today, the LGBT community is embraced by the Foreign Service and well beyond."

Ted Osius “a known gay politician” is replacing David Shear who has been the US ambassador to Vietnam since 2011.

Osius is married to Clayton Bond, an officer with the US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs. The same-sex couple has a son.
The couple met in Washington, DC at a monthly business meeting of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies– the officially organization representing gay and lesbian personnel and their families in the U.S. Department of State and offices in the U.S. Government, according to state.gov.

They were married in Vancouver, Canada, and had a commitment ceremony in Ted’s home state of Maryland, it added.
According to the US Embassy in Hanoi, Osius served as a political officer at the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and the US Embassy in Hanoi from 1997 to 2001, before being positioned in Thailand and Indonesia. He also served in the Philippines, India, and South Korea.

Other positions he has held include: Staff Aide and Political Officer at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Political and Management Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Vatican City.

Osius was till recently an Associate Professor at the Washington D.C. based National War College.

His position as US Ambassador to Vietnam is unlikely to be controversial as Vietnam has already scrapped fines against same-sex weddings under a decree taking effect last year. However Vietnamese lawmakers have not yet officially recognized same-sex marriage.

This is particularly remarkable given that until 2000 it was illegal for gay couples to even live together and same-sex relations was only taken off Vietnam’s official list of mental illnesses in 2001.

Vietnam’s progress on gay rights is in stark contrast to the laws that criminalize same-sex relations in nearby Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar.