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The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Prose - 97. James Hormel, Junior "My Dad v. the Senate"
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Gops' state sponsorship of discrimination IS a family issue
When I was 11 years old, my Dad, James Hormel, told me he was Gay.
I didn’t find this an easy bit of information to digest, but I heard my father’s great concern for how this disclosure would affect me. This was not a ‘lifestyle choice.’ Being Gay was part of his personal makeup; something he had struggled with greatly his whole life.
President Clinton recently nominated my father to be US ambassador to Luxembourg. This made us, as a family, quite proud. When my father sat before the Senate at his confirmation hearing, the entire family – including my mother and stepfather – attended to show our unified support. After hearing nothing but high praise from committee members and other senators, we felt sure that a vote of approval would follow. The Foreign Relations Committee approved his nomination by a 16-2 vote.
A week later, we learned several senators had placed “holds” on the nomination, allowing other senators to launch a smear campaign.
The reason, they said, was that they thought my father would use his position as ambassador to further a "gay” agenda. As press reports have noted, these senators objected, among other things, to my father’s financial donations to a Gay and Lesbian collection at the San Francisco Public Library, and to the fact that his partner Timothy Wu would be considered an “ambassadorial spouse.”
In response to these objections, the San Francisco Chronicle reported my father said he would resign from boards of Gay organizations if he was confirmed, and that Timothy would not accompany him to Luxembourg. [Appeasement is never the answer!!!! – Ed.]
Despite support from such conservative senators as Orrin Hatch of Utah, others continue their hold on the nomination. They include Sens. Bob Smith (R-New Hampshire), Tim Hutchinson (R-Arkansas) and James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma). Senator Inhofe recently equated my Dad with a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has rejected pleas from 42 senators – nearly half of the Senate – to lift the holds. Without Lott’s goahead, my father’s nomination will not reach the floor, where it is guaranteed to receive overwhelming approval.
My father has dedicated a majority of his work throughout his life to philanthropy and diplomacy. He is committed to helping others. His qualifications as a diplomat have never been disputed. For these reasons, I have concluded that those senators blocking his nomination do so as a simple matter of discrimination.
Those who oppose my father’s nomination on the premise that orientation affects “family values” are not familiar with the strength of our family. While I was growing up, my father never tried to influence my orientation in any way. What he did teach me was kindness, acceptance of others, honesty, self-esteem and standing up for what you believe.
I have just returned to California from Washington with my father, three of my sisters, my brother, two brothers-in-law, my wife, two nieces, one nephew and my father’s partner. We were in Washington for a meeting about our family’s foundation, which my father established to encourage us to participate in philanthropy.
He has taught us through his own giving, to organizations such as Swarthmore College, the Holocaust Museum, [the] Virginia Institute of Autism, [the] University of Chicago, [the] American Foundation for AIDS Research, [the] Breast Cancer Action network and the San Francisco Symphony, that to give as a family is one more way to strengthen our ties.
My father’s agenda for our family is to encourage closeness and integrity. His agenda as ambassador to Luxembourg is to represent our country. It just so happens that he is Gay. The Senate deserves the opportunity to act on the American agenda – to deliberate and vote on my father’s nomination.
—James Hormel, Junior,
July, 1998
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