I can’t believe this!! The married governor of New Jersey resigns because the shit is about to hit the fan that he is gay– and acted on it. It’s about time that the news got juicy!!
I just saw this news, so I can’t say I have processed it. I am sad that being gay is such a negative factor in his life, stunned that he was holding hands with his wife at the press conference, and proud that he admits it. I guess everyone thought he was resigning because he is corrupt, so it’s cool that he is outing himself instead of just going with the flow. He has a bunch of kids, how sad for them that he didn’t admit it to himself earlier before involving two wives and his kids in the lie.
I was surprised about this, but I’ve read a couple of news stories that seemed to suggest there was more to the story than McGeevey is saying now. Here’s the coverage in The Advocate.
Nevertheless, it’s unfortunate that the story will spend any time suggesting that the governor’s sexual preference is a reason to resign.
Ah, and now I see that your link to The Washington Post is to a story with even more ideas about why McGeevey is resigning.
Okay, nonfamousi, I don’t get it. I need help understanding this. Forgive the bricklike nature of my brain around this story. The guy steps down because he’s gay? Has McGeevy done something as a politician that compromised his voters? Did he fail to represent their interests? Does his coming out – which does deeply affects his family – somehow affect his ability to act on the issues that affect his constituents? Does he just want to be out of the limelight on this while he sorts himself out? (I can understand that. I’m not a complete dork.) Does a straight guy that has an affair in office automatically step down? (Hello, Newt Gingrich.) Does he maybe think that he can’t continue to do his job while he deals with the impact to his family life? (Hello, Bill Clinton.) I get that as a het, there’s no way I understand the nuances of his situation, but honestly, his stepping down makes me think that HE thinks that his (finally) deciding to admit that he’s gay somehow impairs his ability to serve the people that voted for him. My reaction was, damn, how tragic for his family that this took so long. It was not, DAMN, that’s a guy who can’t be governor. (Hello, Arnold Schwarzengger.) McGeevey? Why? Is this about the “I’ve lied to my family and the people about who I am, so I don’t deserve to hold office” point of view? I’m feeling really pinheaded around this story. I’m thinking, he’s gay, he in office, get used to it. Am I totally missing the point?
Pam, you just said what I’ve been thinking for the last 24 hours. I wished he hadn’t stepped down. It would have been great for New Jersey to have an openly gay governor. And I like McGreevey. I am tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt, though, and believe that he’s stepping out of the limelight to deal with this. It’s more than just that he had an affair. If he’d had an affair with a woman, well, maybe he and his wife could get past it and move on. Maybe they’d get divorced. Maybe she’d hit him with a shovel. But it gets more complicated when the option of forgiving AND forgetting is gone. Obviously the nature of their relationship is going to change. He didn’t come out and say he was bi. He said he was gay. The nature of their marriage is necessarily changed now. They’ve got kids which complicates it further. And I’d like to believe that his decision was made so that he could deal with these issues within his family and without every detail of their decisions getting plastered all over the front page of the Trentonian.
This is the reason he resigned, gay or straight, scanddal is enough to force you out:
Two sources close to McGreevey, both speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man involved in the affair was Golan Cipel, an Israeli poet who briefly was the state’s homeland security adviser.
One source, a senior McGreevey political adviser, said Cipel threatened McGreevey several weeks ago that unless he was paid “millions of dollars,” Cipel would file a lawsuit charging the governor with sexual harassment.
Cipel could not be reached for comment. An FBI spokesman did not confirm reports that McGreevey’s office called the bureau Thursday to complain about Cipel asking for money.