James Hormel

Infobox US Ambassador


name = James Catherwood Hormel
ambassador_from=United States
country = Luxembourg
order =
term_start = June 29, 1999
term_end = 2001
predecessor = Clay Constantinou
successor = Gerald J. Loftus
Chargé d'Affairs "ad interim"
president = Bill Clinton
birth_date = birth date and age|1933|1|1
birth_place = Austin, Minnesota
profession = Philanthropist
party = Democratic

James Catherwood Hormel (born 1 January 1933 in Austin, Minnesota) is a philanthropist and grandson of George A. Hormel, founder of Hormel Foods (producers of SPAM and other meat products). He lives in San Francisco, California.

Hormel earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College and a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1958 where he later served as Dean. He was a member of the 1996 U.S. delegations to the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and the boards of directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. He was appointed United States Ambassador to Luxembourg by President Bill Clinton in 1999. When he was appointed through a recess appointment, he became the first openly gay man to represent the United States as an ambassador.

The James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library is the gateway to collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area. He participated to numerous events, including a conference organized in 2004 by Amnesty International in the frame of the Geneva Gay Pride.

Nomination controversy

In 1994, President Bill Clinton first considered Hormel for an ambassadorship in Fiji but since Fiji proved to have repressive laws against gay men - a homosexual act being punishable by fourteen years in prison - the nomination was not put forth. Instead Hormel was named to the United States delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1995, and in 1997 he became an alternate delegate for the United States at the United Nations General Assembly. Hormel's appointment to the U. N. General Assembly post was quickly and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, but when Clinton nominated him to be ambassador to Luxembourg in October 1997, a lengthy and rancorous political battle ensued.

Because of Hormel's excellent record, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved his nomination in November 1997 by a vote of sixteen to two, with only conservative Senators Jesse Helms of North Carolina and John Ashcroft of Missouri opposed. Although an estimated 60 of the 100 senators supported the appointment, three Republicans -- James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas, and Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire--launched a vigorous campaign against it. Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi refused to take the necessary steps to bring the matter to a vote. In public remarks Lott called homosexuality a sin and compared it to alcoholism and kleptomania.

Abetted by conservative groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition and the Family Research Council, the dissenting senators charged that Hormel was pro-pornography and anti-Catholic and would not be accepted in largely Catholic Luxembourg and filibustered to stall the process. In support of the pornography allegation, the senators offered a list compiled by the Traditional Values Coalition of materials in the Hormel collection at the San Francisco Public Library. Hormel had not selected any of the publications in question, many of which were also in the Library of Congress. Opponents based the charge that Hormel was anti-Catholic on an on-camera interview at the 1996 San Francisco Pride parade where he laughed when the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence walked by although it was unclear why he was laughing. The Family Research Council distributed video tapes to the entire Senate of the brief incident. Objections regarding Hormel's possible reception in Luxembourg were blunted when officials of the country, which has laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation, indicated that he would be welcome. Senator Alphonse D'Amato of New York found the homophobic obstruction of the nomination an embarrassment and urged that Trent Lott bring the issue up for a vote.cite web
last =Leahy
first =Patrick
title=Floor Statement on the Nomination of John Ashcroft to the Office of Attorney General
publisher=Senator Patrick Leahy
date=29 January 2001
url =http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200101/010129ex.html
accessdate=2008-07-07] cite web
last = Nichols
first =Jack
title=Republican Demagogue: 'Ambassadors Shouldn't Be (Immoral) Gays!': Senator Don Nickles (R.-Okla) Steps Up Declared War on U.S. Gays: Franklin Kameny on Nickles: 'He's a Two Bit Little Public Servant!'
publisher=Gay Today
date=22 June 1998
url =http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/events/062298ev.htm
accessdate=2008-07-07] Since Lott continued to stall, Clinton used the process of "recess appointment" to name Hormel ambassador in May 1999. Inhofe expressed outrage at the tactic - which had been used with far greater frequency by Clinton's predecessors Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush - and vowed to block all 149 of Clinton's pending appointees in retaliation. Lott agreed, although both eventually relented. Hormel was sworn in as ambassador on 29 June 1999 with his partner at the time, Timothy Wu, holding the Bible at the ceremony.cite web
last = Rich
first =Frank
title= Journal; Summer of Matthew Shepard
publisher=New York Times
date=3 July 1999
url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503EFD7123DF930A35754C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
accessdate=2008-07-07] cite web
title= Human Events
publisher=New York Times
date=16 July 1999
url =http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199907/ai_n8874620?lstpn=article_results&lstpc=search&lstpr=external&lstprs=other&lstwid=1&lstwn=search_results&lstwp=body_middle
accessdate=2008-07-07] cite web
last = Holland
first =Judy
title= Hormel's partner sees win for minorities; Mainstream America rejected anti-gay comments, Timothy Wu says
publisher=The San Francisco Examiner
date=1 July 1999
url =http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/99/c/0707.htm
accessdate=2008-07-07] cite web
last = Stern
first =Keith
title= Queers in History
publisher=Lulu.com, ISBN:1847283489
date=2006
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=zVKCL0xKTOAC
accessdate=2008-07-07] Also in attendance were Hormel's former wife, his five children, and several of his thirteen grandchildren.

References

* [http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/biography/hormel_james.html US State Department Biography]
* [http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/hormel_jc.html James Hormel] on glbtq.com