Jim McGreevey was a successful politician who became the governor of New Jersey, but he says he wouldn't want anyone else to follow his path.
"I am the anti-model: Basically, I am what not to do," McGreevey said yesterday at the Penn Bookstore.
At the event, McGreevey answered questions and spoke about his new book, The Confession. It chronicles his life up until 2004, when McGreevey announced that he was gay and resigned as governor.
His resignation came in the wake of a scandal that involved a former sexual partner whom he had hired to his administration.
In his book, McGreevey describes the shame he carried through his childhood and political career, as well as through his two marriages.
Married with children at the time of the scandal, he advocated against living in the closet and spoke of the importance of having the courage to "embrace your own truth."
McGreevey said he hopes that Americans of his generation will be the last to have to "choose between love and a professional career."
Today's generation is much better at embracing differences and refraining from judgment, he said.
"You are our future," McGreevey said. "And, God willing, you will carry on the tradition of civil liberties and march our community and our country forward."
McGreevey said that because he had been convinced being gay was a mortal sin he tried to change himself, even to the point of getting married.
"I thought I was trying to do the right thing," McGreevey said, "and I made a terrible mistake."
In the future, McGreevey said he would like to work with non-profit organizations to relieve hunger and to work with youths who are ashamed of their homosexuality.
Bob Schoenberg, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center at Penn, introduced McGreevey and remarked that he hoped McGreevey's story would "help frightened people to understand some of the consequences of remaining in the closet, and, perhaps, even to muster the courage to come out."
Dan Dowling, a Chemistry graduate student, said he was now more anxious to read the book after seeing the presentation.
Dowling said that he was initially disappointed at the example McGreevey set in having a wife and children, but that he understood McGreevey's message.
He was "trying to turn a negative example into a positive one" by encouraging others to come out, Dowling said.
Tiffany Dovydaitis, a Nursing graduate student, said she was interested to hear McGreevey speak about his wife.
"He said that all those years with his wife weren't a lie, and it seemed like it wasn't just a flippant decision for him to come out," she said.
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