SOME WONDER IF THERE'S MORE TO IT
By DAVE DAVIES & DON RUSSELL
DID JIM McGreevey resign because he's gay or crooked?
The
cynics are already saying that the New Jersey governor made
his shocking declaration yesterday to avoid the heat over a
brewing political scandal in the Garden State.
That
kind of talk makes gay Philadelphians like Steven Capsuto laugh.
"All
I can say," said Capsuto, 40, "is we've sure come
a long way if coming out as a homosexual is now regarded as
a way to save face."
Capsuto
was among several members of Philadelphia's gay and lesbian
community who gathered last night at the William Way Community
Center, 13th and Spruce streets, to hash over McGreevey's resignation.
Their
worst fear is that the headlines and history will write off
McGreevey as just another gay pol who bit the dust. The complexity
of his life and times as New Jersey's closeted governor, they
know, may never be told.
"I've
already had people write to me, saying he resigned because he's
gay," said Debbie Spadafora, who runs a local Web site,
Phillygayborhood.com. "But are we going to focus on the
disclosure about being gay, or that he was lying all this time?"
"If
he was cheating with another woman," observed David Hutting,
47, "he'd still be governor."
"Right,
look at [Rudy] Giuliani," chimed in Capsuto. "He was
taking his mistress to public affairs."
In
gay political circles, there was no rush to embrace McGreevey
as a gay hero.
Ann
Butchart, Democratic chair of Fishtown's 18th Ward and an activist
in the Liberty City Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club, said it
doesn't help gay rights to see the coming out of a high-ranking
official associated with his resignation.
"It's
unfortunate that the emphasis will be on his homosexuality,
when the other way to see this, as with President Clinton, is
that he had sex with a subordinate," Butchart said.
"The
transgression was not that he had sex with a man," Butchart
said, "but people will end up blaming the demise of his
governorship on his sexuality."
Two
national organizations, the Human Rights Campaign and the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, issued tepid statements yesterday
praising McGreevey's personal courage and pleading for understanding.
But
neither organization praised McGreevey as a leader or inspiration
to others.
The
ambivalence is understandable. On one hand, a governors' emotional
acceptance of his sexuality is a huge development for gay political
life.
On
the other hand, the governor cheated on his wife, slept with
a subordinate and hired his lover for a public job. And that's
on top of being caught on an FBI tape allegedly saying a password
for an influence peddler in a corruption probe.
But
Kevin Vaughan, a recent president of the International Network
of Lesbian and Gay Officials, said it was affirming to many
gay Americans to see McGreevey publicly share the difficult
experience of coming out.
"I
think it was a good thing for him to come up and say 'I'm openly
gay,' " Vaughan said. "The tragedy is that being in
the closet left him open to the possibility of blackmail, and
the pain he and his family may have to go through with a sexual
harassment suit."
Paul Scoles, an openly gay Democratic candidate for Congress
in Delaware County, said McGreevey's moment won't matter much
in the end.
"It
helps any time someone feels comfortable to stand up and say
[he's gay]," Scoles said. "But more and more people
understand that what a person does in their private life is
irrelevant to their fitness for office. I think the American
people are way ahead of the politicians and the press on this.
It's just not that big a deal anymore."
At
William Way Community Center, members considered a number of
questions related to McGreevey.
Does
it matter that he admitted his homosexuality only under pressure
of a possible lawsuit from a former lover?
"Not
at all," said Gershon Cattan, 28. "His motivation
is not as important to me as the fact that he did come out...
We should be looking at this as a case of blackmail."
What
about his family, did he lie to his wife? How could he survive
this double life?
Capsuto
says he knows of other gay men who get married to women, out
of pressure or convenience.
"It's
just what you do: get married," he said.
But,
he added, "It appears he had struggled with his sexual
orientation. If that's true, it's because society did a good
job of teaching him that there was something wrong with him
as a gay man.
"But
the interesting thing is that the same people who will be complaining
about his marital infidelity are exactly the same people who
say we should suppress these [homosexual] feelings, to get married
to a woman and live a straight life... This just shows how difficult
that can be."
The
problem grows even deeper because McGreevey was a public figure.
"He
used his family as an electioneering tool," Capsuto said.
"Almost
as if he were overcompensating," Hutting said.
"And
that's where the perception of dishonesty comes in," Capsuto
said. "Never mind that he's forced to do that!"
"It's
just sad news," Hutting said. "I think he should be
proud."
