Jan Herman has anticipated some of what I have to say about the not so mysterious case of the gay governor. We've discussed the down-low — gay and bisexual men who pretend to be straight and have sex with unprotected women — several times at Silver Rights. The situation has received attention as something that occurs in the African-American part of the population. Much of America is still so benighted it does not realize that if behavior occurs in the black, Asian or Hispanic populations, it likely occurs in the white population, too. (Notice that when white college students riot, it is callled having too much to drink or high spirits.) Repeat after me: People are more alike than different. Herman realizes that McGreevey has brought the down-low out of the closet for white Americans.

A friend writes:

My own Golan Cipel has kept me in stitches for the last 35 years. Over breakfast he alluded to the Newsweek article on Jim McGreevey, "Gov. McGreevey's affair to forget." He said it should have been subtitled: "The Down Low — It's Not Just a Black Thing Anymore." [See the Down low blues or J.L. King's "On the Down Low."]

By the way, the first "standing [different strokes] governor" to come out of the closet is not McGreevey, but WAS Lord Cornberry, Governor of East and West Jersey and New York, circa late 1600s. A major flamer. Used to run around the mansion in drag all day. My late friend, the actor Anthony Holland, and playwright Bill Hoffman even wrote a play about him. I saw a staged reading of it at New York's Public Theatre, slightly before the invention of moveable type.

Okay . . . if you want to get technical about it, we were STILL the colonies, and Cornberry was never actually IN the closet. But as the young folk say, attention should be paid.

Which says it all.

Herman is on target. I'm sure that down-low fellows can be found in every ethnic group in America. Some commentators are saying minority men are more likely to keep their homosexuality or bisexuality hidden because they have more to lose. I am not so sure about that. Since white men still dominate the higher echelons of employment and wealth, arguably, they have more at stake when it comes to coming clean about who they are spending time between the sheets with. Consider McGreevey. It is doubtful that he could have been elected governor of New Jersey if he were not white. Can an African-American be elected mayor of Atlantic City? Certainly. Along with the indictment that often follows. But, not governor of the state.

McGreevey fits the down-low profile to a T, including the proof of unprotected sex with women — children. However, I believe that to focus on his homosexuality may be falling for a smokescreen. It distracts people from other evidence of the governor's dishonesty. I'll have more to say about that in a later entry.

Note: This entry also appeared at Silver Rights.