SUMMARY: On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell (left) swore in the second openly gay U.S. ambassador in history.

The second openly gay U.S. ambassador in history was sworn in Wednesday without the controversy and media attention that surrounded the first such diplomatic appointment.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (pictured) presided over an invitation-only ceremony to swear in Michael Guest as ambassador to Romania, according to Kate Byrnes, spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Nominated by President George W. Bush, Guest won easy confirmation from the Senate last month, as reported in the Washington Post.

By contrast, the nomination of James Hormel, an openly gay man who became ambassador to Luxembourg in 1999, was stalled for two years and became a politically divisive issue during the presidency of Bill Clinton.

Regarding the lack of controversy around the new ambassador's confirmation, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said, "I'm very pleasantly surprised. I think it's a real mark of progress."

Rep. Frank also noted a key difference between the two ambassadors: Michael Guest has been a senior foreign service member for years. Formerly the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, Guest served as deputy chief of mission in Prague from 1996 to 1999, after serving in several Washington and overseas posts.

"This appointment was not political," Frank told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network. "He (Guest) was entitled to it. Hormel's nomination was totally different." Hormel is a philanthropist who inherited a fortune from the meat-packing company that bears his last name.

At the swearing-in ceremony, Secretary Powell publicly acknowledged Guest's partner of six years, Alex Nevarez, who will accompany Guest to the ambassador's residence in Bucharest.

David Smith, communications director of the Human Rights Campaign, called Powell's acknowledgement of Nevarez a "small gesture that spoke volumes."