John Berry, the newly confirmed U.S. Ambassador to
Australia, married his longtime partner in
Washington, D.C., Saturday, reports the Washington
Blade.
Berry and his partner, Curtis Yee, have been together
for 17 years, and married in a ceremony at St.
Margaret's Episcopal Church, according to the Blade.
Before being confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to
Australia, Berry served as director of the U.S. Office
of Personnel Management from April 2009 to April of
this year, making him the highest-ranking openly
gay official in the executive branch. Berry has also
worked for the Smithsonian Institution, the National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Department of the
Interior, and the Treasury Department, and he was
once an aide to Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
Since Berry was confirmed to the ambassadorship by
a Senate voice vote last month, he becomes the first
openly gay ambassador to a G-20 nation. He joins
four other openly gay U.S. ambassadors, including
the ambassador to neighboring New Zealand and
Samoa, Spain ambassador James Costos, and
Denmark ambassador Rufus Gifford.
While Australia does not currently embrace marriage
equality, incumbent prime minister and labor leader
Kevin Rudd said in a debate this weekend that if
reelected, he and his party will introduce a bill
establishing marriage equality within his term's first
100 days.
www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2013/08/12/gay-ambassador-australia-marries-dc