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May 07, 2007
Sunday Survey: Proud of McGreevey?
Posted by: Chris
Last week's Sunday Survey was the most popular yet, so thanks for voting. I asked what issue is most important to you in the 2008 presidential election. From the looks of things, about half of you should be pretty happy with the commitments already made by the Democrats in the White House hunt.
Every Democrat in the race is already on the record backing both of your top two choices: "Don't Ask Don't Tell" repeal (22.7%) and employment non-discrimination (19.7%). They've already committed as well on the two smallest vote-getters: hate crimes (4.5%) and domestic partnerships for federal workers (1.5%).
The other half focused on forms of legal recognition for gay relationship. One-third of the total survey voters wanted stronger commitments through either full-fledged marriage equality (18.2%) or federal recognition of civil unions and domestic partnerships (15.2%). Another 7.6% — God bless you every one! — singled out immigration rights as the form of legal recognition most important to you. The same percentage (7.6%) listed repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act as your top priority.
Finally, 3% of you remembered that HIV/AIDS remains with us and listed it as your top priority.
Now on to this week's topic. I'll post more about this later today or tomorrow, but former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey is back in the news this past week. The twice-married father famously announced in 2005 that he is "a gay American" and then resigned over an affair with one of his staffers. He wrote a memoir last fall, but now it's his ex-wife's turn.
Dina Matos McGreevey took time off from increasingly nasty divorce proceedings to pen her own memoir disputing McGreevey's claim that she must have suspected he was gay. In an interview with Oprah, she of the frozen smile at the press conference went even further, "It's a cliche that the wife is always the last to know, and it's true." she told Oprah. "I'm not in denial, but I don't think he's simply gay. I think he's bisexual. I mean, he was married twice. He has two children. And, you know, I never saw him checking out men, but I certainly saw him checking out women."
Dear, dear Dina. Slick Jim was slicker than that, for sure. Despite her ongoing denial, Dina is the understandable object of a great deal of sympathy. How do you feel? On the one hand, her husband admits kissing her goodnight at the hospital after a particular difficult pregnancy delivery, then bopping off home to bop his male paramour. On the other hand, she's screaming that in so doing he exposed her to AIDS. (Eye roll.)
On the one hand, she's fighting for custody and citing among the factors that prove he's an unfit parent that he has a full-sized poster of a naked man (pictured) in his bedroom. On the other hand, the man in the poster is his partner's ex. (Eye roll.)
McGreevey has raised conservative hackles with his academic appointment to the faculty of Kean University in New Jersey — as an ethics professor. Then the lifelong Roman Catholic raised everyone's eyebrows by announcing that he's begun the process to enter a new profession: as an Episcopal priest.
What do you make of all that? Are you proud of James McGreevey as "a gay American" fighting for the right to raise his daughter and build a new life with his partner? Or are you embarrassed by the former governor for coming out when it was expedient, cashing in on his scandal and family pain with a big book deal, and making all sorts of very public bad choices ever since?
Vote now and vote often — OK all you're allowed to do is change your vote. And as with all Vizu polls, voting won't transport you away from this site or open any annoying pop up windows.
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Comments
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At the risk of being drawn into another tete-a-tete-ad-infinitum, I dismissed her concern because all he did was kiss her, which did not put her at risk of HIV. Without knowing more about his behavior outside the marriage and their behavior together in the marriage, it's difficult to quantify that risk.
That said, if McGreevey was having unprotected, receptive anal sex outside their marriage, then he did knowingly expose her to a greater risk of contracting HIV.
Almost any other kind of sexual activity outside the marriage would have exposed her to a greater risk from other STDs — just as if he were a hetero louse cheating on his wife with other women.
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Um, Chris, the fact that he kissed her in the delivery room after she had given birth to his child tells you two things -- one, that they were having sex, and two, that at least one instance was unprotected.
Second, we know plenty about his behavior outside marriage -- because he told us ( http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid31245.asp ). Furthermore, there is an increased risk regardless of whether or not one is topping or bottoming.
Finally, no one dismisses a wife's accusation that her husband increased her risk of being exposed to STDs by cheating on her with other women. Why is it so much easier to do it with men?
Finally, what this dances around, Chris, is painfully obvious; in California alone, over three-quarters of the HIV cases in existence are gay men. The reason that having sex with men carries the highest likelihood that you will become STD-infected (and thus increase the risk to your other partners) is because so many of your potential partners ARE infected. That is hardly a positive PR point, but it's an honest one, and we do no one any favors by ignoring it.
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proud? well, i don't know the man, so why would i be proud of him. from what i can tell he's a liar, a cheat, and a corrupt politician, so if i was a friend of his, or his family, i'd be deeply ashamed. but since he doesn't represent me, or anything approaching what i consider my values to be as a person, gay or otherwise, i would have to say i try not to think about him. i do wish people like you and the advocate and, well, pretty much everyone else would stop putting him on display. let him drift away into the shadows of history along with other d-listers of all persusasion who aren't worthy of your time. you do good work, chris. focus on that, instead.
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yeah... she didn't know but continue to sleep with after he came out. Oh, Golan Cipel is a victim of sexual harnessment then plugged his web site.
Give me a break
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dayum...why do gay men always hate women so much? mcgreevey is the guy at fault here in every way. have a little compassion ya'll.
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Jim McGreevey is his own man. Jim McGreevey represents himself not all gay people. Gay people do not have to make statements whenever a gay individual does something.
Dan, gay men hate women? Please! Divorces often times get nasty look at Alec Baldwin.
I think the poll results show how gay people try to align themselves with the wants and needs of straight people. The number one goal of straight people to "help" gay people is to repeal DADT. The reason is simple. They don't give a [email protected] if a gay person dies. Since WWI the military has had policies regarding gay soldiers. And every time there is war those policies are relaxed to allow gay soldiers to serve because they don’t give a [email protected] if a gay person dies.
Now look at the hate crime poll results and how low they are compared to the others. Once again it shows how gay people SACRIFICE themselves in order to please straight people and THEIR interests. The reason why the hate crimes laws results are low is because they don’t give a [email protected] if a gay person is beaten or killed.
Think about it.
I think the priorities are wrong with concern to gay people. Here’s how I would list them (in order):
Employment non-discrimination
Marriage
Hate crimes law
Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Equal immigration rights for LGBT people
Repeal Defense of Marriage ActThe reason why I put employment non-discrimination first is because gay people need a stable job (like everyone else) before they can have a stable marriage.
I want to state that I only support equal rights for LGBT LEGAL immigrants entering the US. I do not support illegal immigration in any way. The US takes in more immigrants each year than the rest of the world combined. So US immigration laws regarding illegal immigrants are too lenient.
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this makes a lot of sense.
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we have to learn
a lot about women and we dont have enough of knowledge yet!!!!!!!!!!!
Why women cheat
The comments to this entry are closed.
North Dallas Thirty on May 7, 2007 5:36:02 PM:
The fact that McGreevey still even thinks he can get away with this is how amuck the whole idea of "gay unity" has run.
Personally, I have yet to see why we should believe a single thing this man says -- and even less, why we should have any inclination to support his attempt to explain away his deceptive and hurtful behavior towards his wife by blaming HER. Dismissing offhandedly that he increased her risk of exposure to HIV is blatantly hypocritical when ours is the first community to point fingers at "closeted" and "on the down-low" men for spreading HIV.