The appointment and confirmation of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary of the United States makes Bessent the highest ranking openly gay official in United States history. Scott Bessent will be the first LGBTQ person to have his signature on the United States dollar bills.
Bessent is only the second openly LGBTQ member of the cabinet to be confirmed by the Senate. The first being Pete Buttigieg who was confirmed as Transportation Secretary under President Joe Biden in early 2021.
In 2000, Bessent hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore. He has also donated to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In 2016, Bessent donated $1 million to Trump’s 2017 presidential inaugural committee.
Bessent and his husband John Freeman live in Charleston, South Carolina. Freeman is a former NYC prosecutor. The couple has two children, teenage boy Cole and his younger sister Caroline. Both children were conceived through surrogacy.
Their historic home, known as the John Ravenel house was purchased in 2016 and went through extensive renovations to restore many of its period details. “The transformation of the John Ravenel House at 5 East Battery epitomizes the best of preservation, from craftsmanship to collaboration,” the Charleston Preservation Society said when it gave the work an award in 2021.
After the renovation the home became known at the “Pink Palace”, and has recently been placed on the market for sale.
To: JF1 — Noting the sexual orientation or race or gender or whatever when someone has accomplished something for the first time informs the reader that this person has overcome historic and systematic adversity, which arguably makes them more qualified than someone similarly situated who did not face comparable challenges.
TO 4 days ago: Biden had more LBGTQ+ IN HIS CABINET.
https://www.advocate.com/exclusives/2021/6/10/get-know-bidens-many-lgbtq-appointed-officials#toggle-gdpr
Reply to Johnny, the programs that are working well in any of the agencies that are being shut down are being folded in to other agencies. USAID, as a whole, was a disgrace and should be shuttered.
He lacks so much and who cares about his private life. He is part of an effort to shut down services to taxpayers or move some government agencies to for profit companies as they want to privatize agencies like the VA and have cut aid to those in need of medicine and food through USAID where no fraud or abuse was found. He is part of the problem and there are far more capable economists who would do well at Treasury.
He’s an embarrassment and sell out to his community and those ideals and policies he championed prior to 2017. Now he’s just another fascist/nazi that’s screwing everyone in this country as well as our once allies.
Great to see but what I care most about are the qualifications of the person to do the job. Not the sexual orientation of the person doing it.
He’s not a member of the LGBTQ community as far as this garbage administration is concerned. They might be ok with LGBQ – for now.
Condi Rice outranks him
More gays/lesbians that previous administrations:
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary
Ric Grenell, Presidential Envoy
Tammy Bruce, State Dept. Spokesperson
Jacob Helberg, Undersecretary of State for economic growth, energy and the environment
Bill White, Ambassador to Belgium
Art Fisher, Ambassador to Austria
Gay and MAGA should be mutually exclusive.