[1]WASHINGTON (BP)–President Clinton’s bypass of the Senate to name James Hormel as the United States’ first openly homosexual ambassador is an affront to the confirmation process and to the desires of the majority of Americans, said the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public-policy agency.
Faced with being stymied again in his nomination of Hormel, Clinton recently used a constitutional provision permitting a president to make appointments when Congress is in recess to install Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg. The president first nominated Hormel for confirmation in 1997, but opponents prevented a vote by the full Senate. Clinton renominated him in January of this year, but no action had been taken.
Hormel, an heir to the meat fortune of the same name, has been an active financial supporter of numerous homosexual causes.
“This is a circumvention of the constitutional process and reveals a disdain for that process,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “The majority of Americans do not want a self-acknowledged homosexual living in a domestic partnership with another homosexual as his mate who funds and advocates a radical homosexual rights agenda to be an official representative of their government as an ambassador to another nation.”
Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, called the Republicans’ refusal to allow a vote on Hormel “nothing more than anti-gay discrimination.” HRC is the country’s largest homosexual political organization.
Hormel’s homosexuality is not an issue in his nomination because of his opponents, Land said.
Hormel “has made his homosexuality an issue by living in an open, domestic, homosexual relationship and by both advocating and funding radical homosexual rights causes,” Land said. “Serving as an ambassador of our nation is an honor and a privilege, not a right to which people are entitled regardless of their personal behavior and belief. The United States Senate does not have to vote to confirm American citizens’ rights. However, it is supposed to vote and confirm honors and privileges conferred by our government.”
Clinton’s appointment of Hormel demonstrates his “cavalier attitude towards marriage and widely held religious belief,” the Family Research Council’s Robert Knight said in a written release. “Clinton is using the presidential bully pulpit in a way that suggests character doesn’t count. But values matter — and the impression of American values this appointment sends around the world does not serve our nation well.”
Hormel, who lives in San Francisco, has provided financial backing to several homosexual rights organizations and enterprises. He is a sponsor of “It’s Elementary,” a video documentary showing teachers discussing homosexuality with elementary and junior-high students. The film will be broadcast on at least 90 public broadcasting stations this month, The Washington Post reported.
The chairman of Equidex Inc., Hormel served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1995. He formerly was dean of students at the University of Chicago Law School.
Although the Senate Foreign Relations Committee easily approved Hormel in the last Congress, 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.
Clinton announced Hormel’s appointment June 4, when Congress was observing its Memorial Day recess.
The appointment of Hormel is the latest accomplishment for an administration that has done far more than any previous one to advance homosexual rights. Clinton 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 HRC’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 has repeatedly 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.”