McGreevey Dirty Lndry Hung Out To Dry - Towleroad Gay News

Contents:

• JIM MCGREEVEY: CSHED BY THE CLOSET: FOR YEARS THE NEW JERSEY ERNOR HID THAT HE'S GAY. THEN HE RIGNED AMID A FLURRY OF SNDALS. A BEHD-THE-SCEN LOOK AT HOW HIS DOUBLE LIFE CLOUD HIS JUDGMENT.
• WHERE ‘GAY AMERIN’ JIM MCGREEVEY IS, 10 YEARS ON
• KEV SPACEY IS NOT THE FIRST GAY MAN TO WEAPONIZE COMG OUT
• CALL ON GAY ERNOR TO QU CATHOLIC GROUP US
• FIRST OPENLY GAY GOV. JIM MCGREEVEY WANTS TO BEE A PRIT

JIM MCGREEVEY: CSHED BY THE CLOSET: FOR YEARS THE NEW JERSEY ERNOR HID THAT HE'S GAY. THEN HE RIGNED AMID A FLURRY OF SNDALS. A BEHD-THE-SCEN LOOK AT HOW HIS DOUBLE LIFE CLOUD HIS JUDGMENT.

His gay love affair, if that's what was, was simply the proverbial straw that broke the back of his beleaguered his nfsnal Augt 12 prs nference, McGreevey had been a textbook closet se, leadg a double life that ultimately proved stctive.

WHERE ‘GAY AMERIN’ JIM MCGREEVEY IS, 10 YEARS ON

-based gay advocy group Human Rights Campaign: "The dangers of the closet are te regardls of who we are, regardls of occupatn or fay circumstanc. "Other than the ernor himself, the person most hurt by McGreevey's li is his wife, Da Mat McGreevey, who had llapsed tears jt three days before her hband's prs nference upon learng he was gay. He swiftly evolved to an amb polician--a morate Democrat--who thrived on what pot he realized he was gay is unclear--perhaps even to the ernor himself--but his sire to succeed as a polician led him to hi his sexualy, a moral promise that praged his eventual undog.

KEV SPACEY IS NOT THE FIRST GAY MAN TO WEAPONIZE COMG OUT

One pany termated his employment after 30 days, has been reported, bee Cipel often didn't bother to show up for spotlight on Cipel only fueled whispers that McGreevey was gay.

And he seemed nsistent on gay rights, opposg marriage equaly while signg a sweepg domtic-partnership bill to law. Reporters had a field day wh McGreevey's mistak, and the gay mors spread. He lled Daniel Zgale, an openly gay California polil nsultant and former ai to Gov.

Zgale says he "raised the qutn whether would not be better to addrs the personal issu that [McGreevey] was termed to take rponsibily for that day separately" rather than givg the appearance that the ernor was steppg down bee he's gay. "I am absolutely nfint that the people of New Jersey would not want to remove him om his job for beg gay, " Zgale nclus. McGreevey's nstuents the gay bars along the Jersey ast agree wh Zgale.

CALL ON GAY ERNOR TO QU CATHOLIC GROUP US

In the gay mec of Asbury Park at least, speculatn about McGreevey's sexualy apparently stretch back to when he was mayor of while they've been among the first to share McGreevey stori, jok, and speculatn wh a nod and a wk, many New Jersey gays still stand behd their ernor. He matas that he is not gay and that he was the victim of the ernor's unwanted 's sistence that he's heterosexual has a faiar rg to Twersky: "He did not want to adm to this dark secret and will take to his grave, " the New York Sun ntributor told The Advote.

"He said, y, he knew already to be reful of the state police, and I said, 'They thk you are gay and you are McGreevey's lover, ' and he says, 'I know that is absolutely unte.

Would he have been a better ernor had he uttered the tried-and-te phrase "And so my tth is that I am a gay Amerin" 20 years ago, at the start of his polil reer? Gay men and lbians asssg the impact of McGreevey's g-out on the battle for equaly n only speculate about those qutns, at least until the ernor cis to talk.

FIRST OPENLY GAY GOV. JIM MCGREEVEY WANTS TO BEE A PRIT

"His level of fort wh himself went up, and there was relief at fally beg able to be himself, " says Henry Shekopf, a New York polil nsultant and longtime McGreevey cultural observers, the lson is one of the hypocrisy of straight society, which nmns gay men who cheat on their wiv and yet forbids them om marryg other gay men. "It is hard for people opposed to gay marriage to e to a logil argument to exclu gay people, " says gay lumnist Dan Savage.