Opinions
A forever Pride stamp for gay Ambassador James C. Hormel
U.S. Postal Service to consider the idea at upcoming meeting
James C. Hormel, an American philanthropist, LGBT activist, and owner of Hormel Foods, a Fortune 500 multinational corporation, died on Aug. 13, 2021. He was 88 years old.
Hormel was the first openly gay person to serve as a U.S. Ambassador. He served at the U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, from 1999 to 2001.
Hormel was a courageous person. He faced the hateful, oppressive, and anti-American politics of Washington in the 1990s. I know the viciousness of the era based on my experience with the federal bureaucracy and homophobic Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.).
As a federal employee, I vocally supported non-discrimination policies and employment equality for LGBT federal employees. After I gave a speech on the subject at an Arlington, Va., conference, Helms tried to have me fired.
On July 19, 1994, Helms said LGBT federal employees and their straight allies like me had our minds in our “crotches.” He said LGBT federal employees and their straight allies like me were “perverts.” He said many more vile things that are preserved for history in The Congressional Record, July 19, 1994, and on C-SPAN.
I survived the Helms assault thanks to staffers for then-Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and GOP contacts in other offices on Capitol Hill. The experience helped me to understand the oppressive and hostile work conditions that my LGBT colleagues faced. This made me a stronger ally.
In the 1990s, Hormel was brave to take on the anti-LGBT politicians in both political parties. In 1994, President Bill Clinton considered Hormel as ambassador to Fiji. After the Fijian government objected to his LGBT advocacy, Clinton reconsidered the Hormel nomination.
In 1997, Clinton nominated Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg. At that time, Helms chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In his memoir “Here’s Where I Stand,” Helms did not mention Hormel. He was, perhaps, concerned about his legacy. He may have realized that his homophobia would hurt funding for his Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, N.C., a suburb of Charlotte.
Hormel’s nomination lingered before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for two years. The committee never recommended Hormel’s nomination to the Senate for a confirmation vote. If Helms had been the visionary foreign policy leader his supporters claim, he would have advanced Hormel’s nomination.
Hormel said Helms went “easy” on him during the nomination process. Other senators, including Arkansas Sen. Tim Hutchinson, held up the Hormel nomination. In 1999, Clinton used his authority to give Hormel a recess appointment as ambassador to Luxembourg. Hormel served until Clinton left office in 2001.
In 2006, I relocated from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco. I lived there for 10 years. I met many cultural and political legends, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, City Lights Bookstore owner/publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, former Bay Area Reporter (BAR) editor Paul Lorch, Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, and former Ambassador James C. Hormel, among others.
I freelanced on evening assignments for the BAR. These assignments included several events where Hormel was a speaker or an attendee. During LGBT Pride Month, Hormel once spoke at an event for the Commonwealth Club of California (CCC). He spoke about the history of the LGBT rights movement. It was a small group of CCC members. We sat at a long table as Hormel spoke in his soft, yet commanding, voice as an LGBT historian and activist. It was like being in an LGBT history class with Hormel as the instructor. It was a priceless experience.
Among the other attendees was a representative of the Consulate General of Luxembourg’s San Francisco office. It was informative to hear Hormel and the representative of Luxembourg speak about the foreign service, the State Department, U.S. and European LGBT politics, and the Luxembourg people’s respect for Ambassador Hormel. It was clear from the conversation that Hormel had left a positive impression on the government and the people of Luxembourg. If every ambassador had the diplomatic skills of James Hormel, America would likely have better foreign relations and possibly more respect in the world.
In 2011, Hormel with Erin Martin published his memoir “Fit to Serve: Reflections on a Secret Life, Private Struggle, and Public Battle to Become the First Openly Gay U.S. Ambassador.” Venezuelan filmmaker and playwright Moises Kaufman said of Hormel’s book: “Future generations will look at this book and experience their history told honestly and courageously.” Novelist Richard North Patterson called “Fit to Serve”: “Rich, engrossing, and deeply affecting.” Patterson added: “In the truest sense, this is a great American story.”
I attended Hormel’s book discussion and signing at Books, Inc., a San Francisco bookstore in the Castro District. It was one of the largest and proudest LGBT audiences I had seen at a book event for an LGBT author. Though the event was on a chilly November night in San Francisco, LGBT warmth was abundant for Hormel. After the signing, I engaged the former ambassador in a brief conversation about Jesse Helms, who died on July 4, 2008. He regretted the LGBT lives harmed by Helm’s homophobic hate speech.
In 2013, after Rep. Barney Frank left Congress, he gave a well-attended speech for members of the Commonwealth Club of California at the Fairmont Hotel. I covered the event for BAR. Ambassador Hormel and his husband Michael provided quotes for my news story. Hormel agreed with Frank that gays should come out, because people needed “to recognize the presence of gays in our society.”
The last time I spoke with Ambassador Hormel was at a 2014 reception at San Francisco City Hall after the unveiling of the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp. He recalled Milk’s political leadership and public service. He said Congress needed to seriously address gun violence. For me, this event was a rare opportunity to see one gay man of courage, Harvey Milk, honored by another courageous gay man, Ambassador Hormel.
Throughout his life, Hormel enjoyed success. He represented a needed change in our society and U.S. and global diplomacy. His life experience offers lessons in self-acceptance, understanding, and discipline.
In a 2013 story in the San Francisco Chronicle about homophobia, Hormel said: “I was in my 30s when I finally was willing to come out. I had been married [to a woman] for 10 years. I had children. I was hiding. I was pretending. If I [had] led my life like that, how can I expect other people to suddenly just come around.” This was, no doubt, a painful thing for Hormel to say. It may have also been therapeutic for Hormel to share with others.
Hormel’s life experience was personal growth, achievement, and happiness despite the painful memories. He successfully worked through the mental stress that many LGBT people experience. If young LGBT professionals are looking for an LGBT role model, they might consider Hormel.
It is important to keep Hormel’s memory alive so others can learn from his success. I recently wrote the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to request a Forever stamp honoring Ambassador James Hormel.
In a letter of Feb. 16, Shawn Quinn, the USPS manager of Stamp Development, wrote: “I am pleased to inform you that this proposal will be submitted for review and consideration before the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee at their next meeting.” Mr. Hormel is worthy of remembrance in this way. He was an honorable man.
A Forever Pride Stamp for Ambassador James Hormel in 2025? If you agree, please let Shawn Quinn and your members of Congress hear from you. Happy Pride 2024!
James Patterson, a life member of the American Foreign Service Association, is a writer and communications consultant in the D.C. area.
Renee Good. Alex Pretti.
During this last year, I wondered who would be the first U.S. citizen to be shot by our government. It was not a matter of if, but when. Always.
And now we know.
I thought it would be soldiers. But the masked men got there first. Because when you mix guns and protests, guns inevitably go off. The powers that be always knew it, hoped for it, and wanted it to happen.
Why? Because masked men and guns instill fear. And that’s the point. Ask yourself when’s the last time you saw masked men and guns in our cities, or anywhere for that matter. I always thought that men masked men with guns robbed banks. I was wrong.
Masked men want to rob us of our dignity as human beings. Of our assurance in the calmness and contentment of our communities. They want to rob us of our trust in our institutions, and our faith in each other. And truly they want to rob us of the happiness and joy that we all constantly yearn to find in our lives.
But our only collective ability as a nation to push back is our protests. Peaceful protests. As Renee and Alex did.
But peaceful protests? Because they are the perfect power to shame the cowardice of those that believe guns and force are the only true authority. Fortunately, our last hope and fiercest ally is our Constitution, which gives us the power — and the right — to protest.
How much more peaceful can you get when you hear Renee Good’s last words, “I’m not mad at you, Dude.” I may be mad at the system, the government, the powers of unknown people pulling the strings but not you personally. “Dude.” Peaceful to the last word.
Yet, what becomes lost in the frantic pace of hair-trigger news cycles, of officials declaring impetuous damnations alongside johnny-on-the spot podcasters spouting their split-second opinions are the two human beings who have lost their lives.
How habituated we’ve become as we instantly devour their instant obituaries. The sum of their lives declared in less than 10 seconds of cellphone video. They haven’t just lost their lives. They’ve lost all of their lives. And now we watch over and over again as their death is re-revealed, re-churned, re-evaluated, and re-consumed. In that endless repetition, we forget the meaning of life itself.
We must remember that Renee and Alex believed in their communities, in the purpose of their work, in the happiness of their loves and lives, and in the dignity and curiosity of life itself. They were singular individuals who did not deserve to die at the end of a gun barrel for any reason, ever.
How fitting that Renee was a poet. Sometimes in confronting the massiveness of loss in our lives, we look to our poetry and our psalms, our hymns and our lullabies, to find a moment of solace in our communal grief, and to remember Renee and Alex, for what they gave us in life.
Yet, at this moment, I cannot escape the reality of what was taken from them so soon, so violently and so forever. They were exceptionally courageous and normal people, and for that reason, I must remember them through a poem to explain to me, and others, the unexplainable.
I dream of this not happening.
I dream this day and night.
For none of this is real.
And none of this is right.
I dream of these sons and daughters
who now will not go home,
and dream of their mothers and fathers,
who now must stand alone.
I dream of all the flowers that they will never hold —
the kisses never shared again, the secrets to not be told.
I dream of all the sunsets that for them will never set,
I dream of all the love they gave and now they must forget.
I dream of all their dinners
with wine to never spill,
or books to read, or bread to break
or babies to be held.
I dream of each one still reaching
in the middle of the night,
for a hand that needs another
to stop a nightmare’s flight.
I dream of them not dreaming,
which I could never do,
for how can you not dream a dream
that never will come true.
I dream of this not happening.
I dream this day and night.
For none of this is real
And none of this is right.
Carew Papritz is the award-winning author of “The Legacy Letters,” who inspires kids to read through his “I Love to Read” and the “First-Ever Book Signing” YouTube series.
Opinions
Gay Treasury Secretary’s silence on LGBTQ issues shows he is scum
Scott Bessent is a betrayal to the community
We all know the felon in the White House is basically a POS. He is an evil, deranged, excuse for a man, out only for himself. But what is just as sad for me is the members of the LGBTQ community serving in his administration who are willing to stand by silently, while he screws the community in so many ways. The leader, with his silence on these issues, is the highest ranking “out” gay ever appointed to the Cabinet; the current secretary of the treasury, the scum who goes by the name, Scott Bessent.
Bessent has an interesting background based on his Wikipedia page. He is from South Carolina and is what I would call obscenely wealthy. According to his financial assets disclosure to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Bessent’s net worth was at least $521 million as of Dec. 28, 2024; his actual net worth is speculated to be around $600 million. He married John Freeman, a former New York City prosecutor, in 2011. They have two children, born through surrogacy. I often wonder why guys like Bessent conveniently forget how much they owe to the activists in the LGBTQ community who fought for the right for them to marry and have those children. Two additional interesting points in the Wikipedia post are Bessent reportedly has a close friendship with Donald Trump’s brother Robert, whose ex-wife, Blaine Trump, is the godmother of his daughter. The other is disgraced member of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Jenrette, is his uncle.
Bessent has stood silent during all the administrations attacks on the LGBTQ community. What does he fear? This administration has kicked members of the trans community out of the military. Those who bravely risked their lives for our country. The administration’s policies attacking them has literally put their lives in danger. This administration supports removing books about the LGBTQ community from libraries, and at one point even removed information from the Pentagon website on the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, thinking it might refer to a gay person. It was actually named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets. That is how dumb they are. Bessent stood silent during WorldPride while countries around the world told their LGBTQ citizens to avoid coming to the United States, as it wouldn’t be safe for them, because of the felon’s policies.
Now the administration has desecrated the one national monument saluting the LGBTQ community, Stonewall, in New York City, by ordering the removal of the rainbow flag. The monument honors the people who get credit for beginning the fight for equality that now allows Bessent, and his husband and children, to live their lives to the fullest. That was before this administration he serves came into office. I hope his children will grow up understanding how disgusting their father’s lack of action was. That they learn the history of the LGBTQ community and understand the guts it took for a college student Zach Wahls, now running for the U.S. Senate from Iowa, to speak out for his “two moms” in the Iowa State Legislature in 2011, defending their right to marry.
Bessent is sadly representative of the slew of gays in the administration, all remaining silent on the attacks on the community. They are mostly members of the Log Cabin Republicans who have given up on their principles, if they ever had any, to be subservient to the felon, and the fascists around him, all for a job.
There are so many like them who supported the felon in the last election. Some who believed in Project 2025, others who didn’t bother to read it. Many continue to stand with him, with the sycophants in the Congress, and the incompetents and fascists in the administration, as they work to destroy our country and end the democracy that has served us so well for 250 years. To keep out all immigrants from a nation of immigrants. They all seem to forget it was immigrants who built our country, who fought against a king, and won. These sycophants now support the man who wants to be king. Who openly says, “I am president I can do anything only based on my own morality,” which history clearly shows us he has none.
I believe we will survive these horrendous times in American history. We have fought a king before and won. We have kept our country alive and thriving through a civil war. We the people will defeat the felon and his minions, along with the likes of those who stood by silently like Scott Bessent. They seem to forget “Silence = Death.”
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.
Opinions
Unconventional love: Or, fuck it, let’s choose each other again
On Valentine’s Day, the kind of connection worth celebrating
There’s a moment at the end of “Love Jones” — the greatest Black love movie of the 21st century — when Darius stands in the rain, stripped of bravado, stripped of pride, stripped of all the cleverness that once protected him.
“I want us to be together again,” he says. “For as long as we can be.”
Not forever. Not happily ever after. Just again. And for as long as we can. That line alone dismantles the fairy tale.
“Love Jones” earns its place in the canon not because it is flawless, but because it is honest. It gave us Black love without sanitizing it. Black intellect without pretension. Black romance without guarantees. It told the truth: that love between two whole people is often clumsy, ego-driven, tender, frustrating, intoxicating—and still worth choosing.
That same emotional truth lives at the end of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” my favorite movie of all time. Joel and Clementine, having erased each other, accidentally fall back into love. When they finally listen to the tapes that reveal exactly how badly they hurt one another, Clementine does something radical: she tells the truth.
“I’m not perfect,” she says. “I’ll get bored. I’ll feel trapped. That’s what happens with me.”
She doesn’t ask Joel to deny reality. She invites him into it. Joel’s response isn’t poetic. It isn’t eloquent. It’s not even particularly brave. He shrugs.
“Ok.”
That “OK” is one of the most honest declarations of love ever written. Because it says: I hear you. I see the ending. I know the risk. And I’m choosing you anyway.
Both films are saying the same thing in different languages. Nina and Darius. Clementine and Joel. Artists and thinkers. Romantics who hurt each other not because they don’t care — but because they do. Deeply. Imperfectly. Humanly.
They argue. They retreat. They miscommunicate. They choose pride over vulnerability and distance over repair. Love doesn’t fail because they’re careless — it fails because love is not clean.
What makes “Love Jones” the greatest Black love movie of the 21st century is that it refuses to lie about this. It doesn’t sell permanence. It sells presence. It doesn’t promise destiny. It offers choice.
And at the end — just like “Eternal Sunshine” — the choice is made again, this time with eyes wide open.
When Nina asks, “How do we do this?” Darius doesn’t pretend to know.
“I don’t know.”
That’s the point.
Love isn’t a blueprint. It’s an agreement to walk forward without one.
I recently asked my partner if he believed in soul mates. He said no—without hesitation. When he asked me, I told him I believe you can have more than one soul mate, romantic or platonic. That a soul mate isn’t someone who saves you — it’s someone whose soul recognizes yours at a particular moment in time.
He paused. Then said, “OK. With those caveats, I believe.”
That felt like a Joel shrug. A grown one.
We’ve been sold a version of love that collapses under scrutiny. Fairy tales promised permanence without effort. Celebrity marriages promised aspiration without truth. And then reality — messy, public, human—stepped in. Will and Jada didn’t kill love for me. They clarified it.
No relationship is perfect. No love is untouched by disappointment. No bond survives without negotiation, humility, and repair. What matters isn’t whether love lasts forever. What matters is whether, when confronted with truth, you still say yes.
“Love Jones” ends in the rain. “Eternal Sunshine” ends in a hallway. No swelling orchestras. No guarantees. Just two people standing at the edge of uncertainty saying: Fuck it. I love you. Let’s do it again.
That’s not naïve love. That’s courageous love.
And on Valentine’s Day — of all days — that’s the kind worth celebrating.
Randal C. Smith is a Chicago-based attorney and writer focusing on labor and employment law, civil rights, and administrative governance.
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