James Hormel was a philanthropist and the heir to the Hormel Food fortune who became the first openly gay ambassador representing the U.S.Hormel served as dean of students and director of admissions at the University of Chicago Law School in the 1960s.
Later, he became one of the founders of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S. He was named to the United Nations delegation to the Human Rights Commission in 1996, and in 1997, President Bill Clinton first nominated Hormel ambassador to Luxembourg.
But his confirmation was blocked by Republican senators who were concerned about his LGBTQ advocacy and about the possibility of a poor reception of a gay ambassador overseas.