LGBT rights groups viewed Guest's appointment, and Powell's remarks, as historic and indicative of greater recognition of gay State Department employees and same-sex couples.

The first publicly gay ambassador, James Hormel, received a recess appointment from Bill Clinton after the Senate failed to confirm his nomination.

Romania's last anti-gay law, Article 200 of the Penal Code, which criminalised public manifestations of homosexuality, was repealed shortly before Guest's arrival as ambassador in 2001.

"[5][6][7] On December 5, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Guest had been selected as a member of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team at the State Department.

[8] Also in 2008, Guest co-founded the Council for Global Equity (a coalition of human rights and LGBT advocacy organizations seeking U.S. support for LGBT-fair policies abroad), for which he is a senior adviser.

[11] In early 2016, at a Council for Global Equity reception in Washington, D.C., Guest spoke against the anti-immigrant "hateful rhetoric" that Republican candidates had been using on the campaign trail.