Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, right, swears in James C. Hormel, left, as the new ambassador to Luxembourg at a State Department ceremony on June 29, 1999, in Washington.
Timothy Wu, center, holds the bible. (AP Photo/Khue Bui) Philanthropist James C. Hormel, the first openly LGBTQ person to represent the United States as an ambassador, died today (Friday, Aug.
13) at the age of 88. According to the Bay Area Reporter, a San Francisco LGBTQ newspaper, Hormel died “with his husband at his side and his favorite Beethoven concerto playing.” Hormel served as ambassador to Luxembourg from 1999 to 2001.
Hormel told BAR in 2016 that the process of becoming an ambassador began for him during a 1992 dinner with Bob Farmer, campaign treasurer