admin @ Wed, 2006-09-20 08:01
With a tell-all book and an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the story of former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's closeted sex life, once nothing more than a rumor whispered through the halls of Trenton, has officially gone global.
McGreevey, speaking about the book for the first time yesterday, described his written effort as an act of contrition, and said he penned The Confession, in part, to help other closeted gays.
He repeatedly framed his own coming out in spiritual terms, describing his new life as authentic and honest - sentiments expressed by his friends and surrogates in the week leading up to yesterday's release of the book.
"The book is painstakingly honest. The virtue of truth is truth. There is no advantage whatsoever for me to set forth this story but to demonstrate the harm and pitfalls of closeted life," McGreevey told The Inquirer during an interview at the home he shares with his new partner in Plainfield, N.J. "Every word is accurate and truthful and represents, unfortunately, a hell to which I committed myself and the people I love."
Winfrey chose to focus nearly the entire first segment of her show on the effect of McGreevey's double life on those he loved, particularly his estranged wife.
Dina Matos McGreevey famously stood smiling at her husband's side on Aug. 12, 2004, when he declared himself "a gay American," and said he would resign from office after an affair with a male aide.
The host peppered him with questions about how and why he deceived his wife, at one point asking, "If you know you're gay, why then go and marry someone?" That line drew applause from the studio audience.
"Over the past two years, my focus has been on protecting my daughter and establishing our lives as private citizens, and I will continue to do so," she wrote yesterday in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "I have no further comment at this time."
Sales of McGreevey's book were steady yesterday, and by early evening The Confession had cracked the top 50 most popular books on the online bookseller Amazon.com, where it was one of the fastest-selling books of the day.
"My guess is our community is not going to be interested," he said. "He is not a positive role model because he came out so late in life and it just seemed to be a way to avoid scandal that was hot on his heels."
McGreevey's administration was plagued by scandal, with several aides, fund-raisers and confidants facing federal scrutiny and criminal charges. His political patron, former State Sen. John A. Lynch, pleaded guilty last week to corruption and tax-evasion charges.
Even the circumstances of McGreevey's coming out remain controversial. The former governor said he had a consensual relationship with an aide, Golan Cipel. He said he acknowledged the relationship only after Cipel tried to blackmail him and threatened to file a sexual-harassment lawsuit.
Cipel has maintained that he is not gay. In an interview with The Inquirer on Saturday, he accused McGreevey of feeding him shots of Jagermeister then jumping on top of him and attempting to kiss him.
"I didn't have sex with him - ever," Cipel said. "In his book, he talks about love, but I never heard anything from McGreevey that was affectionate. The only thing I experienced from him was sexual harassment."
During the interview, McGreevey took a phone call from O'Donnell, signing off with, "I love you." The two appeared together on Winfrey's show, which was taped last week in Chicago.
"He's a good person, an expansive heart. He's godly. He has a tremendous spirituality," McGreevey said. "We have a wonderfully boring, normal life."
McGreevey later made his first live appearance at an event in Woodbridge, where he was once mayor, hosted by Garden State Equality, the gay-rights group that once blasted McGreevey for opposing gay marriage.
Speaking to Winfrey, he described the days before he became governor, when he sought out sexual encounters in rest-stop bathrooms and adult bookstore booths.
"My sex was condemned to hellish places," he said. "That's not where you find love - in the back of a booth. That's where you fulfill a physical need."
But he said that his Irish Catholic upbringing had taught him that homosexuality was sinful and perverse. He said that living his secret life was more sinful, and coming out and writing the book was his "first step back to being godly."
McGreevey said he no longer feels accepted in the Catholic Church, and he and O'Donnell now worship at St. Bartholomew's, an Episcopal church in Manhattan.
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