Happy. Gay. American: when Jim McGreevey came out--and announced he'd resign as New Jersey governor--it was the end of a long, painful story of lies and secret liaisons, which he details in a new book. His new story: settled, partnered, happy.(Interview)

Publication: The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine)

Publication Date: 10-OCT-06

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Liberation Publications, Inc.

Life for Jim McGreevey has completely changed since August 12, 2004, when he came out as a "gay American" and announced his resignation as governor of New Jersey. Then still married to his second wife, Dina Matos, McGreevey faced what he alleges was an extortion attempt from his former male lover and employee, Golan Cipel. Once the shining star of the Democratic Party--considered by many a favorite for the White House--McGreevey saw his personal and political lives reduced to shambles, thanks to the double-barreled scandal surrounding his decision to date and then hire Cipel, whom he met on a business trip to Israel.

Today, the 49-year-old former governor lives far out of the spotlight on a quiet tree-lined street in Plainfield, N.J.--a town heralded as a "gay suburb" by Gay.com (a division of The Advocate's parent company). He shares his three-story Georgian-style home with his partner, 42-year-old investment company CFO Mark O'Donnell; the couple's first date was last November at Advocate sister publication Out magazine's Out 100 party in New York City in November 2004. He and Mark now help raise McGreevey's 4-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, who lives 20 minutes away with her mother but spends every other weekend in Plainfield. (McGreevey's older daughter, 13-year-old Morag--who lives with his first wife in Canada's British Columbia province--made an extended visit during the summer.)

"I'm now in a loving, committed relationship in a home filled with friends, my daughters, and my family," he says. "It's ended up in a good place."

As McGreevey prepared to launch a book tour to promote his just-published memoir, The Confession (Regan Books, $26.95), which he wrote with journalist David France (Our Fathers), he invited The Advocate to his home for a candid talk about the secrets that accompany life in the closet and, more important, the grace that comes when one finally "grapples with those secrets in an honest, open way."

Most people say "I'm gay" when they come out. But you said, "I'm a gay American." What made you choose those words?

I used the words "gay American" not only to say who I am as a person but to recognize my belonging to a nation--to a people--that historically has moved in the right direction on civil rights, the present administration notwithstanding. So saying "I'm a gay American" is similar to saying "I'm an Irish-American," a Cuban-American, or an African-American. It is a sense of identity--to say that I'm gay but that I'm also American--and to say that proudly, unequivocally, and forcefully.

You know, it's wonderful and refreshing to be open as to your sexuality, your identity, and also to belong to a greater community. I have a source of pride in my country and in its traditions and its values, and now...

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