SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- President Barack Obama’s choice for ambassador to the Dominican Republic is part of an historic class of nominees that would more than double the number of openly gay top diplomats to have ever held the post. Fresh off gay rights victories in the Supreme Court, Obama chose gay men for the diplomatic post in four countries and one Europe-based intergovernmental organization.

But the choice of James “Wally” Brewster, a top campaign fundraiser and prominent gay rights activist in Chicago, has angered religious leaders in this deeply Catholic country, sparking fears that the U.S. is trying to export gay rights.

Top members of the evangelical and Catholic churches, including the powerful Catholic cardinal, criticized Obama for a choice they say is out of touch with the country’s cultural reality.

Monsignor Pablo Cedano, auxiliary Catholic bishop of Santo Domingo, said the appointment of Brewster showed “a lack of sensitivity, of respect by the United States.”

Brewster’s position on gay rights “is far from our cultural reality,” he said, adding that if he comes, “he’s going to suffer,” due to the cultural differences, “and he’ll have to leave.”

Church leaders often comment on, and influence, social matters here, where 88 percent of the population identifies as Catholic. The conservative hand of the Church has been seen in the 2010 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and in pushing through a controversial ban on abortions.

Gay rights advocates, who applauded the appointment, say they are often harassed and threatened.

“The Church doesn’t accept us,” said Francisco Ulerio at a gay rights parade Sunday in downtown Santo Domingo.

Ulerio, who said he is Catholic, dressed as a Catholic cardinal to protest the comments made about Brewster. “They are very conservative,’’ he said. “They don’t have respect for us.”

The controversy is unlikely to stop Brewster from taking the ambassadorship, if the Senate confirms him.

Dominican President Danilo Medina’s legal advisor César Pina Toribio said the announcement of Brewster’s nomination indicates that the Dominican government had already been consulted.

“It would be indelicate for the Dominican state to refuse the nomination now,” he said.

In choosing Brewster, Washington sought to influence the Dominican Republic’s position on areas such as gay marriage, Santo Domingo’s archbishop said.

A similar argument was made in the 1990s when then President Bill Clinton considered nominating James Hormel, who was also openly gay, to the post in Fiji. Protests in Fiji led Clinton to reconsider.

But three years later, Hormel, whose family owned the Hormel Foods dynasty, was nominated, this time to serve as the top diplomat in Luxembourg.

Campaigns by conservative Christian groups alleged he was anti-Catholic (Luxembourg is mostly Catholic) and that a San Francisco Public Library collection that Hormel funded allegedly contained pornographic materials. Senate Republicans successfully blocked his confirmation, raising questions about whether Hormel represented U.S. values.

Clinton used a recess appointment to make Hormel the first openly gay ambassador in U.S. history in 1999. Three other openly gay men have served as ambassadors since.