ADVOCATE: James Hormel, the first out gay U.S. ambassador, has died. He was 88.
An heir to the Hormel meatpacking fortune, he was a philanthropist and LGBTQ+ activist, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
President Bill Clinton nominated him to be ambassador to Luxembourg in 1997. But because of controversy over his identity and his activism, the Senate denied Hormel a confirmation vote. Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel called him too “aggressively gay,” for which Hagel apologized years later, and another Republican senator, Tim Hutchinson, claimed Hagel was anti-Catholic because he laughed at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Clinton put him in the ambassadorial post through a recess appointment, bypassing the Senate, in 1999. Hormel served until 2001.
Pete Buttigieg, who this year became the first out Cabinet member as secretary of Transportation, often spoke of the homophobia that kept Hormel from being confirmed. Watching the story play out, “I learned about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who is allowed to belong,” Buttigieg said when President Joe Biden nominated him to the Transportation post in December. “And just as important, I saw how those limits could be challenged.” » | Trudy Ring | Friday, August 13, 2021
