Former New York Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
WASHINGTON | The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed former New York Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney to become the next American ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Maloney, the former chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who was also former President Bill Clinton’s White House staff secretary, in 2012 became the first openly gay person elected to Congress from New York. Maloney in 2022 lost to now U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) after the state redrew its congressional districts.
Biden last May nominated Maloney for the ambassadorship. The Senate approved it by a 63-31 vote margin.
“Thank you, all,” said Maloney in a short X post after the vote.
The Vienna-based OSCE is a Cold War-era intergovernmental organization in which 57 countries participate on a range of issues that include security, terrorism, economics and human rights.
The organization in 2018 released a report that documented extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses against LGBTQ people in Chechnya.
Dan Baer, who is also gay, was the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE from 2013-2017.
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