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
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.
My truth is that I am a gay American,
I engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man.
To be able to love and live in freedom means to be able to make godly decisions. To make godly decisions we have to surrender our egos and all the falsity and shame that goes with it.
At different points in my life, I had grappled with the idea of going into the priesthood - in high school or law school. Where it ends, I'm not quite sure. Perhaps it ends with death, grappling with one's spirituality.
The arc of American history almost inevitably moves toward freedom. Whether it's Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, the expansion of women's rights or, now, gay rights, I think there is an almost-inevitable march toward greater civil liberties.
I realized that my truest passion was for helping people change through faith in a higher power. That meant, for me, belonging to the church. Using my abilities to bring Christian doctrine to a postmodern world.
Because of an adulterous affair I shall leave office in November.
I'm enjoying prison ministry, particularly with the women in Hudson County Jail who have suffered tremendously in their lives.
As I climbed the electoral ladder - from state assemblyman to mayor of Woodbridge and finally to governor of New Jersey - political compromises came easy to me because I'd learned how to keep a part of myself innocent of them.
I'm grateful for my brokenness. I'm grateful for my humility.
Civil union is less than marriage. Marriage is a sacred and valued institution and ought to be afforded equal protection.
For me, living in the closet corroded my ability to have an honest, open relationship with my God, my loved ones, my constituency and myself.
At a point in every person's life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is.