denied Hormel a confirmation vote. Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel called him too “aggressively gay,” for which Hagel apologized years later, and another Republican senator, Tim Hutchinson, claimed Hagel was anti-Catholic because he laughed at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Clinton put him in the ambassadorial post through a recess appointment, bypassing the Senate, in 1999. Hormel served until 2001.Before becoming an ambassador, Hormel had served in two delegations to the United Nations.
His other accomplishments include funding the Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library, which is now the James Hormel LGBTQIA Center, plus work for the Human Rights Campaign, AIDS causes, and more.He was a graduate of Swarthmore.