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• Friday, September 29, 2006 08:26 AM

  My Confession: Who Cares?

  I'm a Jersey girl (sans big hair) and lesbian now living across the river in PA. When McGreevey came out with his ridiculous statement about being a "gay American", it felt like the whole episode was meant to pre-empt media reports about his gay relationship with his unqualified homeland security bud. That he called himself a "gay American" seemed out-of-place and, well, creepy in a way. Almost insulting. (Why not say, "gay New Jerseyan", though no one uses that phrase either.)

  The bottom line: It struck me as disingenuous and kinda sleazy. His book deal feels the same. I don't get why some pockets of the gay community wants to embrace him. People: he came out because he was being squeezed out by pending news reports. Not because he felt in his heart-of-hearts that he needed to claim his gayness in the wake of gay discrimination. Or because he had fallen in love with a man and felt he owed it to his family and state to acknowledge this.

  I won't buy his book anymore than I would buy Mary Cheney's--for similar reasons. Both are disingenuous, make-a-buck attempts to set straight (no pun intended) history that is just smoke and mirrors. And both authors (the ones whose names are in big font on the covers)have completely blown opportunities to improve the lives of gay Americans and the rest of the country's understanding of us.

  A pox on both of them.

  —RatherBRidin' Read RatherBRidin''s other letters
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