NEW JERSEY: Former Gov. Jim McGreevey Denied Episcopal Priesthood

Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey has been turned down in his first attempt to become an Episcopal priest. McGreevey, who resigned from office in 2004 after being forced to out himself, has been a seminary student since 2007. He converted from Catholicism shortly after his outing scandal.

Church leaders, who have long embraced gay parishioners and clergy, were bothered by McGreevey's bitter divorce, sources told The Post. "It was not being gay but for being a jackass -- [McGreevey] didn't come out of the whole divorce looking good," said a source with the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. Some leaders also were wary of McGreevey's sudden embrace of their faith after his scandal and feared the church was being used, the source added. After resigning as governor, "he was sort of looking for every angle to make a complete redo of his professional life," said another church source. "He ran to the church for some kind of cover, which isn't fully appropriate. Even if he's a good guy, he should wait five to 10 years to get over his issues."

Church sources tell the NY Post that it's not uncommon for first-time applicants to be denied.

Dan Savage & Jim McGreevey Talk Christianist Bigotry With Joy Behar

Dina Matos McGreevey Comes Out Against Marriage Equality

She was OK with fucking her way to the top with her clearly gay husband, including having three-ways with him. But Dina Matos McGreevey does not support same-sex marriage. Because that's against God.

“I was raised a Catholic. I grew up in the church, so I believe in traditional marriage between a man and a woman,” Matos added. McGreevey, who left office three months after disclosing his sexual orientation, is in a gay relationship and has said he would marry his partner if possible. A bill that would have legalized gay marriage was defeated, 20-14, in the state Senate last Thursday, ending efforts to secure passage prior to the inauguration of Gov.-elect Chris Christie, a gay marriage opponent, next Tuesday. Matos, 43, has not remarried but acknowledged Wednesday she is dating.

HomoQuotable - Jim McGreevey

"With every passing day it becomes more and more in the distant mirror. I try to be grateful for the abundance of the blessings that I have, for the journey that I'm on and to relish each day as a gift. I'm grateful for my brokenness. I'm grateful for my humility. It's a blessing. An old Benedictine priest told me, 'It's the cracks where the grace comes through.' We have to cherish our humanity and to embrace that as an opportunity for change and for transitions. That's the gift. That's grace." - Disgraced former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, speaking like the priest he is working to become.

McGreevey: I'm Broke And I Owe My Boyfriend $250K

Disgraced former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey told the judge presiding over his divorce trial that he can't pay alimony because he's broke and owes his boyfriend $250K.

Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey yesterday said he owes a quarter-million dollars to his boyfriend, but wants to pay child support for the daughter he has with his estranged wife, as well as for his first child. The nation's first openly gay governor denied, however, that he is financially dependent on boyfriend Mark O'Donnell. 'I want to pay child support. I want to fulfill my obligations,' McGreevey told a state judge during his third day of testimony in his divorce trial. 'Unfortunately, I have had to bankrupt myself to pay legal fees upon legal fees.' McGreevey said O'Donnell has lent him much of the legal costs, as well as the $3,000 that McGreevey is charged monthly for living in O'Donnell's Plainfield mansion.

McGreevey is "charged" $3000 to live with his boyfriend? Wouldn't that be also known as "paying his share of the mortgage"?

(Via - Towleroad)

Friday Night Specials: Threeways For McGreevey, Wife, Aide

Well, this is a fascinating development.

A former aide to James E. McGreevey said today that he had three-way sexual trysts with the former governor and his wife before he took office, challenging Dina Matos McGreevey's assertion that she was naive about her husband's sexual exploits.

The aide, Theodore Pedersen, said he and the couple even had a nickname for the weekly romps, from 1999 to 2001, that typically began with dinner at T.G.I. Friday's and ended with a threesome at McGreevey's condo in Woodbridge.

They called them "Friday Night Specials," according to Pedersen.

Pedersen described the encounters during an interview with The Star-Ledger. He said he wanted to refute the innocent image that Matos McGreevey has projected - both during the couple's ongoing divorce battle and in interviews she gave after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned last week in a sex scandal. He said he was also incensed by her portrayal of herself as an unsuspecting wife in her book: Silent Partner: A Memoir of My Marriage.

"I wanted to get this out now because it was so offensive to me that she goes on television playing the victim," Pedersen said. "She's trying to make this a payday for herself. She should have told the truth about the three of us."

Pedersen did not say if he was gay or bisexual and only described having contact with Matos McGreevey during the trysts. He also said he never knew for sure if McGreevey was gay.

Oh, the innocent wronged wife!

UPDATE: Dina denies it all.

"Theodore Pedersen's claims, as reported in the Newark Star Ledger on March 16, are completely false and were prompted by Jim McGreevey. This all has to do with the publicity I have received since Governor Spitzer resigned. Jim has enlisted one of his cronies in trying to distinguish that situation from his own, and to discredit me in the media. He cannot stand it when I am receiving attention in the media rather than him.

"This is not the first time. Jim started with a false claim, made shortly before my book was published, that I knew he was gay when we were married. The falsity of that claim is made clear on the very first page of Jim's book, just as his description of our relationship in his book stands in stark contrast to Pedersen's false allegations.

"Jim again became the focus of the media's attention, just one day after my book was released by announcing his intention to become an Episcopalian priest.

"Jim has had a close relationship with Pedersen since his days as Mayor of Woodbridge, and arranged jobs for Pedersen from that time through his years as Governor and beyond. They have continued their close relationship since Jim left office. Most recently, in August 2007, Jim and his partner, Mark O'Donnell, funded Pedersen's vacation to China, along with Jim, O'Donnell, and other members of Jim's inner circle. This was obviously payback time for Pedersen."

Dina McGreevey: Stand By Yourself

"I wasn’t the first such person in this situation, and Ms. Wall Spitzer isn’t going to be the last. This will happen again. And when it does, let’s skip the psychoanalysis and judgments heaped on the wife. She’s not the elected official. Let him face the cameras on his own.

"Let’s get away from this notion that an elected official’s wife has to stand up there. If she wants to be there, great. If she doesn’t, that’s fine, too. But whatever you do, respect her privacy in the face of what is already an overwhelmingly painful situation." - Dina McGreevey, ex-wife of disgraced former New Jersey governor Jim "I am a gay American" McGreevey, in a New York Times editorial titled Stand By Yourself.

The Sanctity Of Heterosexual Marriage

(Via - Dan Savage.)

McGreevey: Marriage Was Not A Fraud

Oh brother.

Whether or not Dina Matos McGreevey knew her husband, former Gov. James E. McGreevey, was gay should not matter because there was a marriage that produced a child, and thus no fraud was perpetrated, McGreevey alleged in divorce papers released today.

But Matos McGreevey contends there was fraud, and wants to be paid $605,999 in damages based on the lifestyle she should have enjoyed during the 13 1/2 months she did not live at Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton, according to court documents submitted by McGreevey's lawyers.

McGreevey resigned in disgrace in August 2004 - a year before his term was to end - because of an admitted gay affair with an aide. McGreevey's lawyers want to squelch Matos McGreevey's report from an accountant that also estimated that the former governor turned seminarian should be making $1,465,000 a year - not the estimated $50,000 for 2008.

In the papers filed in Superior Court in Union County a week ago, one of McGreevey's lawyers, Michael Ascher, wrote that neither the misrepresentation nor the concealment of sexual preference showed any fraud.

Man, I'm sick of hearing about both these turkeys.

HomoQuotable- Jim McGreevey

"My gut wrenched when I read of Sen. Larry Craig's bathroom arrest. I remembered my own late-night encounter with the law at a Garden State Parkway rest stop following a political dinner in north Jersey. I pulled into the rest stop, parked my car, flashed my headlights, which was "the signal," and waited. Glancing in my rearview mirror, I saw a state trooper approaching. I desperately tried to convince the trooper of my innocence, showing him my former prosecutor's badge, a gift from the office when I left. The trooper radioed his office and returned. "I never want to see you here again," he said. I survived for another day." - Seminary student and former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, telling his own tearoom tale.

GLAAD Pissed At Post

GLAAD has issued a call to action over yet another anti-gay Sean Delonas cartoon published in the New York Post. If the above cartoon offends you, contact the NY Post: Jesse Angelophone 212-930-8274, fax (212) 930-8540, e-mail: jangelo@nypost.com.

HomoQuotable - Jim McGreevey

"It's more her awful appearance in an inappropriate and ill-fitting ballgown with a plunging neckline." - Former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey, blaming his estranged wife's attire on Oprah for her book's poor performance, rather than his having charged her with being homophobic. In addition to dissing her fashion sense, he said her book is "dull" and "poorly written". Meow!

Mrs. Love Guv: The Gays Don't Love Me!

Dana Matos McGreevey has filed additional divorce papers claiming that because of her ex's charge that she is homophobic and knew he was gay before they were married, gay men are not buying her book, causing it to tank. (I guess that hour-long fawning she enjoyed on Oprah didn't have its usual magical effect.) She also claims the charges have hurt her in her career as a non-profit fundraiser: "False accusations of homophobia cast [her] in a bad light and negatively affect her ability to succeed in her livelihood," the suit claims.

The soon-to-be former Mrs. Love Guv complains that ex-Gov. McGreeevey "used his experience in manipulating the media" and deliberately timed his accusation of homophobia to make news "shortly before the publication of [her] much anticipated memoir." This had the effect, she claims, of "deterring purchases by members of the gay community."

No, honey. We weren't gonna read your book in the first place.
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Father McGreevey?

From the It Can't Get Weirder department comes news that former NJ gov Jim McGreevey now wants to become an Episcopal priest. McGreevey, raised Catholic, has been accepted into the faith at Manhattan's St. Bartholemew's, where he is in the "discernment" phase, which usually preceeds entering a seminary. Considering the gov's turnpike rest stop history, he certainly has experience working through little holes.

UPDATE: I'm told the Episcopal Church doesn't do the confession schtick.

HomoQuotable - Jim McGreevey

"Although it is clear that the Defendant (Dina Matos McGreevey) knew of my sexual orientation before our marriage, she chose to either ignore it or block it out of her mind, even when questioned by her friends." - Former NJ governor Jim McGreevey, claiming his wife always knew he was a gay American, in divorce papers filed yesterday. McGreevey's "amicable" divorce has turned nasty, with his soon-to-be ex-wife claiming that the gay gov exposed their daughter to gay porn, in the form of a large nude poster (possibly NSFW) in his bedroom. A bitter custody battle is underway.

Wifey's Revenge

Former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey's wife has a book coming out called The Silent Partner. Chapter 1: Rest Stops Of The Jersey Turnpike...
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