Aug 20, 2004   | COMMENTS     

Saturday was a medal-winning day for out gay athletes at the Athens Olympics. Lesbian tennis star Amelie Mauresmo of France captured silver in women's singles, losing to No. 1 seed Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium, 6-3, 6-3.

Equestian Robert Dover, who trains in Wellington, Fla., anchored the United States dressage team to a silver medal behind the heavily favored German squad. This was Dover's sixth Olympics, and he is not alone among out gay men in equestrian, as he told the Blade in a profile last month.

According to Outsports.com, there are 11 athletes competing in Athens who are open about being gay, an increase from seven at the Sydney Games in 2000. The others include American Guenter Seidel (equestrian), Carl Hester (Britain, equestrian), Blythe Tait (New Zealand, equestrian), Rob Newton (Britain, hurdler), tennis players Conchita Martinez (Spain) and Martina Navratilova (U.S), cyclist Johan Kenkhuis (Netherlands), cyclist Judith Arndt (Germany), fender Imke Duplitzer (Germany).

Posted by Chris Crain, Washington Blade Executive Editor, Aug. 21 at 5:02 p.m.

McGreevey is no hero
The praise for New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey's shocking coming out announcement last week was predictable and inevitable.

The New York Daily News crowed, "Instant hero in gay community."

Human Rights Campaign director Cheryl Jacques told Ted Koppel, "Well, certainly, we should have great respect for Governor McGreevey and the very dignified and courageous and character-filled way in which he dealt with this."

Even Rush Limbaugh got in on the McGreevey love-in, telling his radio audience that he felt sorry for McGreevey and praising the memorable line from his coming out news conference, "My truth is I'm a gay American."

Are gay people so desperate for heroes that we need to sanitize the dirty deeds of James McGreevey and elevate him to patron saint of gays?

McGreevey's much-vaunted coming out speech was nothing more than a calculated, politically expedient, poll-tested attempt at distracting attention from his corrupt deeds and generating sympathy for someone who does not deserve it.

By all accounts, McGreevey hired his male lover for a sensitive government post for which he was woefully unqualified, paid him six figures and carried on an extra-marital affair around the time of his wife's pregnancy. When the man, Golan Cipel, threatened lawsuits and public exposure of the affair, McGreevey had no choice but to come clean.

But his mea culpa failed to address the questions of corruption. Did he engage in patronage for someone he was sleeping with? Did he cut any deals or cave to any of Cipel's extortion demands? Did he use his position of authority to pressure a subordinate into having sex?

Instead, McGreevey elicited sympathy for his predicament. We should feel sorry for him because his inner turmoil over being gay caused him to cheat on his (second) wife. Cue the violins. He then made the bold, eloquent, deeply personal and courageous announcement that, "I'm a gay American."

Unfortunately, the memorable and brilliant sound byte turns out not to be the sincere words of a tortured soul coming to grips with his personal truth, but the outcome of meetings with the Human Rights Campaign, in which HRC offered up the phrase from time-tested focus groups.

Once again since Jacques took over as head of the nation's largest gay rights group, the organization reveals itself to be a mere shill for the Democratic Party.

HRC's move to provide cover to a corrupt, closeted Democratic governor comes on the heels of its foolish decision to endorse Joseph Hoeffel, an outmatched amateur doomed to lose by double digits, over pro-gay incumbent Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Rather than reward the powerful Specter, who stands to become chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee if re-elected, for his 86 percent pro-gay voting record, HRC tows the party line and backs the sure loser.

Contrary to Jacques' kind words, there is nothing "dignified," "courageous" or "character-filled" about McGreevey's announcement. He did not do this to advance the cause of gay rights. In fact, he opposes marriage rights for gay couples.

He did not come out to ...