Event Details:

6:30 PM Reception
7:00 PM Program & Book Signing
Resource Center

“Since most [people] find personal satisfaction in involvement in their [spouses’] careers…international protocol views a spouse as sharing in the employee’s professional rank for social purposes.” From the paragraph about spouses in “Social Usage Abroad” handbook used by the United States Department of State to prepare ambassadors and their families for service.  

Behind the glitz, the glamour and the diplomatic immunity, being a U.S. ambassador spouse means you represent the ambassador, the President and the people of the U.S. in everything you do and say. As one of the first gay spouses of an ambassador and diplomat himself, Bob Satawake – a self-described regular guy – found himself propelled onto the world stage as he accompanied his husband, Ambassador James “Wally” Brewster, to the Dominican Republic for a historic and controversial tour of duty representing the United States. In Satawake’s best-selling book “Breaking Protocol,” he discusses his time abroad experiencing discrimination, homophobia and hostility as he forged a new path using diplomacy and love to overcome it all. 

Satawake recently completed his Graduate Diploma in Global Business – Masters Level at the University of Oxford Said School of Business. As an advisor to the National Democratic Institute, Bob has served as chairman of the Equal Voices Advisory Council and is a contributing writer to various news publications.

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The World Affairs Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating and engaging the local community in national and international affairs through our public programming, international visitor program and diplomatic exchanges