Former New Jersey Governor Jim
McGreevey says he wants to marry his boyfriend Mark O'Donnell.
McGreevey, who came out gay amid a sex
scandal which ultimately forced him to resign as governor, did not
support marriage equality while serving as governor.
After leaving politics in 2004,
McGreevey converted from Catholicism and earned a master's degree in
divinity from the General Theological Seminary in a bid to join the
priesthood.
Last year, the Episcopal Church denied
his bid not because he's gay, but because of his 2008 divorce from
Dina Matos.
“I've put that up on the shelf,”
the told The
Daily Beast.
“For me, being gay – and the
[Catholic] Church had taught – was 'abominable sin,'” he
recounted. “It was worthy of hell. That's also what's sad about
me and my friends who are Catholic, whether they're gay or straight,
or straight and divorced. It's just that religion and faith ought to
be a place of support, of nurturing, of transcendence, as opposed to
condemnation … In many ways, religion can become paternalistic,
regimental, rigid, patriarchal, and be stifling as opposed to
ennobling.”
McGreevey, 55, said he's ready to marry
O'Donnell, his Australian-born boyfriend of 7 years.
“I look forward to the day when
marriage is accepted fully,” he said. “There ought not be
gradations of marriage; all persons ought to be treated equally. We
passed domestic partnership when I was governor. I was not publicly
in favor of gay marriage then … But there can't be one status for
straight America and lesser status for gay America … My sense is
that the public is far ahead of the political class, and especially
for the next generation, it's a yawn. The shelf life of those who
would oppose it is diminishing rapidly.”