Jim Hormel was America's first openly gay ambassador, appointed by President Clinton in 1999 (after the GOP held up his appointment for years simply because he is gay). Amb. Hormel penned an op ed for CNN. Here's a small excerpt:
As a young boy growing up in Austin, Minnesota, teachers forced pens into my right hand in the futile hope of correcting my left-handedness. If they had known I was gay, they might have tried to fix that, too. They would have failed.
I spent the first 35 years of my life trying very hard not to be gay, to the extent that I married my college sweetheart and created a beautiful family of five children with her. Hard as I tried to make that life work, I could not escape my attraction to men. Choice had nothing to do with it.
