One summer it was the pursuit of former Congressman Gary Condit last summer it was the blackout. Each August, it seems, there is some kind of controversy that turns the chatty strip of Provincetown bars and stores from breezy beach talk to politics. By the early evening, every conversation had shifted from weather and tea dances to New Jersey. On the afternoon of McGreevey's historic press conference, I was riding my bike through Provincetown, the gay mecca at the very tip of Cape Cod. The events of the last week have raised the question, with only three national elected officials who have run - and won - while already out, how far are we from electing a gay governor? McGreevey's evolution into a gay American was one he had obviously long believed would keep him from a political career. But were McGreevey not tainted by corruption, his strong statement of gay truth is still skewed by how unbelievably depressing it all is, when you move away from the tabloid fodder, to listen to the story of a man who married not once but twice to keep up the appearance of a good political family that backs the family-man politician.
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It all supports the flawed model of run-as-straight, come-out-after-establishing-political-credibility that seems the unfortunate, if still effective, best path to gay visibility in higher office. Indeed, Burlew talked about how he was proud that the governor hadn't shied away from calling himself gay.
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I would think that language sat well with the gay and lesbian community, though there are other circumstances involved in this issue.” “The terms he used to describe himself,” says Brand at the Victory Fund, which is based in Washington, “as a ‘gay American,' are very positive terms. That said, he wishes McGreevey hadn't stepped down - that, if there hadn't been so much controversy around his disclosure, he might have survived as a gay governor who came out in office - and says that those he's spoken to outside the gay community have almost uniformly expressed the same sentiment. “I don't think this state, or any state, is ready for that,” said Burlew, in a phone conversation, with no small degree of sadness. In Asbury Park, at a gay bar called Georgie's, bartender Anthony Burlew doesn't think McGreevey would have found himself in the governor's mansion had he run as a gay candidate. While McGreevey's speech was notable in claiming his “truth” to be that of a “gay American,” would McGreevey's political fate have been different if, say, he had come out after his first divorce? Or even earlier? Would, without the threat of extortion, McGreevey ever have tried to be the kind of open candidate that the Victory Fund would like to support? While that's certainly technically true, it's surely not the way the gay community might have hoped to have claimed a first openly gay governor. Either way, says Robin Brand, vice president for campaigns and elections at the Victory Fund for Campaigns and Elections, "He's the first governor to be openly gay.” Could he have been elected as one? He clearly didn't believe so. McGreevey, of course, didn't run as a gay man. On the page for New Jersey, listed under John Loffredo, Asbury Park city councilman, and before Jim Traier, who sits on the Clifton Board of Education, is Governor Jim McGreevey. Last week there was a new addition to the Victory Fund's Web site. Frank and Kolbe both came out once in office, voluntarily, but with a little nudge, and Kolbe, given his party affiliation, has far trailed Frank in terms of gay advocacy. Of the three, only Baldwin ran for national office while fully proclaiming her sexuality. There are exactly two openly gay representatives, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank and Arizona Republican Jim Kolbe, and one openly lesbian representative, Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin. The names and positions on the list are almost exclusively local.
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On the Web site of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, an organization that “identifies, trains and supports open lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates and officials,” you can search by state to find openly gay officials in office.