-Caveat Lector-
But why not ambassador to Belgium?
Gay Philanthropist Named Ambassador
By KIM CURTIS
.c The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The controversy over the new U.S. ambassador to
Luxembourg looms larger than the tiny country.
James C. Hormel, appointed to the post Friday by President Clinton, has been
dean of the University of Chicago law school and has built a reputation as
one of San Francisco's most generous philanthropists. But Hormel, who has
diplomatic experience, is likely to be remembered less for his diplomatic
skills than as the nation's first openly gay ambassador.
Clinton's appointment, made while the Senate was in recess, angered Catholics
and religious conservatives by bypassing senators who had held up Hormel's
nomination since October 1997. They fear that Hormel, who used part of his
family's Hormel food fortune to help create the Human Rights Campaign, the
nation's largest gay and lesbian political group, will promote a radical
agenda.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights opposes Hormel because he
has refused to condemn the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an irreverent
group of habit-wearing drag queens.
``It's not the man's sexual orientation, but his record of anti-Catholic
bigotry,'' said William Donohue, president of the league.
Others, however, acknowledge that sexual orientation is the issue.
``I think that by forcing Americans to be represented by a radical homosexual
activist like Hormel, Clinton is showing his contempt for traditional
morality, marriage, sexual fidelity and any concept of honor,'' said Robert
Knight with the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council, a religious
lobby. ``Who's he going to appoint next? Larry Flynt as ambassador to the
Vatican?''
Hormel, 66, who twice was named to U.S. delegations to the United Nations,
made few public comments during the long nomination fight.
``I hardly view myself as a 'radical,''' he wrote to Sen. Gordon Smith,
R-Ore., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
But in 1996 he described himself as a mentor to homosexuals, ``part elder
statesman for a constituency that is still in its adolescence in terms of
experiencing its wisdom and empowerment.''
Hormel's friends call him charming and funny, a good listener and a
consummate host.
``He has a real sense of foreign relations, always has,'' says Alice Turner,
who was married to Hormel from 1955 to '65. ``He is extraordinarily
well-qualified -- overqualified -- for this appointment.''
Hormel's nomination cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1997
and secured bipartisan Senate support. Officials in Luxembourg, where 97
percent of the population of 425,000 is Catholic, said it would welcome
Hormel as ambassador.
But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who has compared homosexuality to
vices such as kleptomania and sex addiction, refused to schedule a floor
vote.
``On one hand, you have these anti-gay senators saying we don't need
legislation to protect gays and lesbians but you have the United States
Senate discriminating against someone because he's gay,'' says David Smith of
the Human Rights Campaign. ``It was very un-American and unfair.''
Friends say that, far from being a radical activist, Hormel is a devoted
family man, to his partner, Timothy Wu, and to his children -- four daughters
and a son, and 13 grandchildren.
``My father has better family values than most parents I know. He is very
dedicated to his family,'' says James Hormel Jr., who moved to San Francisco
to live near his father. ``Our family is different, yes, but it is extremely
strong. We love each other very much.''
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