Ambassador Huebner (far right) and his spouse, Dr. Duane McWaine, look on as Vice President Biden poses for a photo with Huebner's mother, Elizabeth, and her grandchildren following Huebner's swearing-in ceremony on Friday.
On Friday, I covered the swearing in of David Huebner, the new U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Here’s the opening from my article in Metro Weekly, “Diplomatic Maneuvers“:
With his spouse holding the Bible, David Huebner was sworn in this afternoon as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in a moment that Vice President Joseph Biden said would be ”advancing our national journey.”
Ambassador Huebner – with his spouse, Dr. Duane McWaine, and the Vice President at his side – told the more than 100 people assembled that his grandfather was an immigrant and his father was a meat-cutter, then noted that, ”I was sworn in next to a spouse of a different race and the same gender as I am.”
”In America,” Huebner said, ‘’such a trajectory is not only possible, it is natural.”
Following the swearing-in ceremony of Ambassador Huebner, Vice President Biden congratulates Dr. McWaine, Huebner's spouse.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found