James McGreevey
James McGreevey
James Edward "Jim" McGreeveyis an American seminarian, politician and member of the Democratic Party, who served as the 52nd Governor of New Jersey from 2002 until his resignation in 2004. He served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1990 to 1992, as the Mayor of Woodbridge Township from 1991 to 2002 and in the New Jersey Senate from 1994 to 1998. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 1997 but was narrowly defeated by Republican...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth6 August 1957
CountryUnited States of America
You know for many elected officials they all started in the same place. You know marriage is between a man and a woman, but they understand that they are moving inevitably, catching up to the American public.
I think - I think you have a conscience growing up in a loving family with a nurturing community. And I think what happens is, and that's part of the problem of being in the closet which is a very sick place. I mean it's self loathing. It's self denial. And you keep that separate.
Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign,
There is no more fundamental obligation of a government than to protect those who cannot protect themselves -- namely, our children. The failure of government in this instance to safeguard the health and welfare of these children is beyond excuse, it is sickening,
Firefighters, police officers and state troopers place themselves in harm's way every day, every week, every year,
When you're a young kid and you're gay, you're out there on your own. And you're trying to figure this thing out. And your parents typically aren't gay.
I was convinced I was worth less than my straight peers. I was at best inauthentic, and the longer I went without amending that dishonesty, the more ashamed I felt.
I kept a steel wall around my moral and sexual instincts - protecting them, I thought, from the threats of the real world. This gave me a tremendous advantage in politics, if not in my soul. The true me, my spiritual core, slipped further and further from reach.
When I first ran for public office, it was with the passion and idealism of a young man who believed that government could help make our lives better, that public service was a calling and that citizenship demanded responsibilities. There was a greater good.
for being a gay American but rather for having let personal feelings impact my decision-making.
For this is an intensely personal decision and not one typically for the public domain, ... Yet, it cannot and should not pass.
It makes little difference that as governor I am gay.
The history of America is to expand civil liberties in a responsible and civil manner. We need to remember that our wonderful Democracy with its freedoms has been working.
Inauthenticity is endemic in American politics today. The political backrooms where I spent much of my career were just as benighted as my personal life, equally crowded with shadowy strangers and compromises, truths I hoped to deny. I lived not in one closet but in many.