James Hormel, first openly gay US ambassador, dead at 88

SAN FRANCISCO — James Hormel, the first openly gay U.S. ambassador, died Friday. He was 88.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Hormel’s death, CNN reported.

The San Francisco resident was nominated to become the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg in 1997 by then-President Bill Clinton, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. His appointment was delayed for two years because of conservative opposition, but Clinton named Hormel to the post during a recess appointment, the newspaper reported.

Hormel served as ambassador from 1999 to 2001. During a 2012 book event promoting his memoir “Fit to Serve,” Hormel recalled the obstacles to his nomination.

“The process was very long and strenuous, arduous, insulting, full of misleading statements, full of lies, full of deceit, full of antagonism,” Hormel said. “But when I think about what was accomplished through the process, it’s a minor factor, because ultimately a great deal was achieved. Ultimately, regulations were changed in the State Department. Ultimately, other openly gay individuals were appointed without the rancor that went into my case.”

In an interview with the Chronicle in April, Hormel said his experience was worth the difficulties.

“The ultimate reason that I decided to go through what I went through is that it required Senate confirmation to send me out as a personal representative of the president,” Hormel told the newspaper. “There had never been a Senate confirmation process (for a gay person) at that level before. When (former presidential candidate, now Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg) said that as a 17-year-old boy he was influenced (watching the hearing), that was the confirmation. What more could one ask? That was the ultimate result of what I did.”

Hormel was an heir to the Hormel Foods empire founded by his grandfather, CNN reported. Born in Austin, Minnesota, Hormel served on two separate U.S. delegations to the United Nations and was the dean of students at the University of Chicago Law School.

He later became a philanthropist, helping fund the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center at the San Francisco Public Library, the AIDS Memorial Grove and the Human Rights Campaign, KRON reported.

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said that “San Francisco lost a great friend.”

“A philanthropist, civil rights pioneer and loving spouse and father, James Hormel lived an extraordinary life and will be deeply missed by many, Feinstein said in a statement. “I had the pleasure of working closely with him on several issues, most notably on the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

“I was grateful for his help and expertise as a member of the host committee. Tapped to be the ambassador to Luxembourg by President Clinton in 1997, he was the first openly gay person to serve as an ambassador. While his nomination was controversial at the time, his service was distinguished and helped advance LGBTQ rights both at home and abroad.”

Hormel received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1956 from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, the same year he married Alice McElroy Parker, according to The New York Times. They married that year and divorced in 1965.

After graduating from Swarthmore, Hormel received a law degree from the University of Chicago and later returned to Swarthmore to Swarthmore to become a member of the college’s board of managers.

Hormel met Michael P.N. Araque and married him in 2008, according to the Times. Pelosi officiated the couple’s wedding, CNN reported.

Pelosi remembered Hormel as “a beloved figure in our community.”

“As the first openly gay Ambassador, he had the courage to be a pioneer and had the patriotism to accept the challenge,” Pelosi said in a statement.

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