[1] WASHINGTON (BP)–President Clinton has renominated homosexual rights activist James Hormel to be United States ambassador to Luxembourg.
The president resubmitted Hormel’s nomination to the Senate Jan. 6, according to the Jan. 8 issue of The Washington Blade, a Washington weekly that reports on news from a homosexual perspective. The White House confirmed Hormel’s renomination Jan. 12, other news outlets reported.
Hormel’s nomination failed to receive a vote by the Senate in the last session of Congress. Although the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved him, some senators put a “hold” on his nomination, citing his promotion of homosexual rights. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R.-Miss., resisted calls to bring Hormel’s nomination to the floor for a vote.
If Hormel were approved, he would be the first openly homosexual U.S. ambassador. Hormel, an heir to the Hormel meat fortune, has been an active supporter of homosexual causes.
The renomination of Hormel followed the release of a booklet by the White House touting the Clinton administration’s accomplishments on behalf of homosexuals. The booklet, “The Clinton-Gore Administration: A Record of Progress for Gay and Lesbian Americans,” cites the White House’s efforts on homosexual rights and AIDS-related issues. It is dated October 1998 on the White House’s Internet site.
Clinton has done far more than any previous president to advance homosexual rights. He sought and received the support of homosexuals in both presidential election campaigns. Only days after taking office in 1993, he announced an attempt to overturn the ban on homosexuals in the military, but his effort was thwarted. He appointed a liaison to the homosexual community and has named several open homosexuals to posts in his administration. In 1997, he became the first president to speak at a homosexual rights event, when he addressed the Human Rights Campaign’s national dinner.
In May 1998, Clinton issued a barrier-breaking executive order adding “sexual orientation” to the list of categories, such as race, gender and age, already protected against discrimination in the federal civilian workforce. With Clinton as president, most federal agencies and departments already had instituted policies providing job protection for homosexuals. He also has repeatedly affirmed his support for the Employment Non-discrimination Act, legislation that would make discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation” illegal in both the public and private workforce.
Clinton is a member of a Southern Baptist Church, Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.
The SBC repeatedly has spoken in opposition to homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle through resolutions adopted at its annual meetings. In 1993, the convention, responding to Clinton’s support of homosexual and abortion rights, passed a resolution separating itself from his policies. At the 1998 meeting in Salt Lake City, messengers approved a resolution decrying Clinton’s executive order issued the month before. The resolution opposed attempts to “provide government endorsement, sanction, recognition, acceptance or civil rights advantage on the basis of homosexuality.”