Breaking the Pink Ceiling

Jim Hormel, America's first openly gay ambassador, University of Chicago alumnus, and former dean of the law school, shares his insights into his ambassadorial quest and his perspective on what the rebellious Chicago students of the 1960s have in common with their peers today.

In his new memoir, Fit to Serve, Hormel recounts a life of public service and private struggle, from his privileged childhood in the Minnesota meatpacking family to the long, personal journey and six-year fight that culminated in his appointment in 1999 as Ambassador to Luxembourg. This history might have been different, were it not for University of Chicago protesters who shook Hormel—then dean of students at the law school (1961-67)—from his conventional life and onto the path to social justice.