October 31, 2006

McGreevey: Put your mouth where your mouth is

Posted by: Chris

Never one to miss an opportunity for self-aggrandizement, former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey has been telling interviewers this week that he wants to marry his partner Mark O'Donnell if the state responds to last week's Supreme Court ruling by allowing same-sex couples to do so.

"Marriage would offer the ability to bless our relationship in a committed way," McGreevey told the New York Times. Twice-divorced (to women), a marriage to O'Donnell would be his third, and the first where he was ever committed, at least in the monogamous sense most people mean by the word.

Not surprisingly, not everyone wants McGreevey's help. In his typical, drive-by-blogging style, outing activist Mike Rogers said "someone ought to tell this guy to shut up":

Let's make sure that this guy doesn't become the poster boy for marriage equality. He doesn't have a very good record and there's no need to give the other side ammunition by allowing a corrupt guy to be the most visible one in our community.

Interesting perspective coming from Rogers, who most gay people think makes a pretty rotten poster boy for the gay rights movement generally, digging into the private sex lives of politicians and gleefully spilling all the details if the pol fails his partisan-biased hypocrisy test.

I, for one, would love to see McGreevey put his mouth where his mouth is, and take a break from his self-promotional book tour to actually lobby for gay marriage in New Jersey. He claims that his fellow Democrats in the Legislature have embraced him since coming out. So why not use his considerable political skill to make up for his opposition to gay marriage while in office — a stance he admits taking only to protect his own closet. "I regret not having the fortitude to embrace this right during my tenure as governor," McGreevey told AP.  Well now is the time to atone, on his "road to authenticity."

We shouldn't hold our breath, waiting for his help, however. The Jimmy McGreevey who emerges from his autobiography, "The Confession," is someone completely self-obsessed. His decisions to come out and publicly "confess" his sins were carefully calculated to benefit no one but him. (He even admits falling in love with Golan Cipel, the man whose threats forced him out of the closet and out of office, because of the way Cipel hung on his every word and thought.)

It was nice to see that the former New Jersey governor at least got some tough questions while visiting San Francisco, since his Atlanta visit to Outwrite bookstores was pretty much a cakewalk. In San Francisco, McGreevey said the goal behind his book was to give back to gay youth. "Selfishly, for me, that will be a process for healing," he said. (Funny, in Atlanta he said his goal now was to work against world hunger; seriously, that was his Miss America answer.)

Kudos to Jimmer Cassiol, gay liaison for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, for calling the ex-gov on that one. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Cassiol said "he didn't consider McGreevey a hero, but someone whose tale provides a lesson about the effect living in the closet has on one's life. For gay youth, he said, it is an example of what not to do."

Dropping the book tour in favor of some old-fashioned lobbying back in his home state would offer a a real opportunity for McGreevey to make amends, and he'd even look good in the process.