Fit to Serve: Reflections on a Secret Life, Private Struggle, and Public Battle to Become the First Openly Gay U.S. Ambassador

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.

Ambassador James C. Hormel was born in Austin, Minnesota, in 1933. He graduated from Swarthmore College and from the University of Chicago Law School, where he later worked as assistant dean and dean of students. In 1995, he was a U.S. delegate to the UN Commission on Human Rights. He served as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg from 1999-2000. He also helped establish the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library. Currently chairman of the investment firm Equidex, he devotes his time to philanthropy and Democratic politics. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Erin Martin is a former journalist for the Hartford Courant and deputy press secretary to U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. A graduate of Stanford University, she has managed political development programs in post-apartheid South Africa and Namibia. She also worked for The September 11th Fund, a World Trade Center relief organization, and for a Madison Avenue communications consultancy. She lives in New York City.