Fit to Serve

This is the memoir of James C. Hormel—a man who grew up feeling different not only because his family owned the Hormel “empire” and lived in a twenty-six-bedroom house in a small Midwest town, but because he was gay at a time when homosexuality was not discussed or accepted. Outwardly he tried to live up to the life his father wanted for him—he was a successful professional, had married a lovely woman, and had children—but as vola-tile changes in the late 1960s impeded on the American psyche, Hormel realized that he could not hide his true self forever.Hormel moved to New York City, became an antiwar activist, battled homophobia, lost dear friends to AIDS, and set out to become America’s first openly gay ambassador, a position he finally won during the Clinton administration. Today, Hormel continues to fight for LGBT equality and gay marriage rights. This is a passionate and inspiring true story of the determination for human equality and for attaining your own version of the American Dream—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without exception.

Hormel recounts the controversies, from don t-ask-don t-tell to the Defense of Marriage Act, in the struggle for gay rights, and his own two-year roller-coaster ride to confirmation. --Vanessa Bush, "A spirited, affecting life story." --Richard Labonte, author and critic

Ambassador James C. Hormel was born in Austin, Minnesota, in 1933. He has a law degree and worked as Assistant Dean and Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1995 he served as a U.S. delegate to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN General Assembly in 1996. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg from 1999-2000. He also established the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library. He currently works at an investment firm called Equidex and devotes most of his time to philanthropy and Democratic politics. He currently resides in San Francisco, California. Erin Martin is a former journalist for The Hartford Courange and also worked for U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut as a press secretary and speechwriter. She's worked on political development programs in post-Apartheid South Africa and Namibia, for The September 11th Fund, and currently works for a Madison Avenue communications consultancy. She lives in New York City.