New Jersey's gay ex-governor is hailing President Barack Obama's public declaration of support for gay marriage.

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Jim McGreevey tells The Star-Ledger that Obama's announcement Wednesday "represents a moral turning point," noting that the president could have chosen a safer political course and not commented publicly on the polarizing issue.

And while he believes there will almost certainly be an anti-gay backlash to the announcement, McGreevey hopes Obama's words will give gay Americans "some normalcy."

McGreevey, a Democrat, abruptly resigned in 2004 after declaring himself "a gay American" and admitting an extramarital affair with a male staffer. After leaving office, he entered an Episcopal seminary and earned a master of divinity degree. He now counsels female inmates at a county jail in northern Jersey, focusing on drug rehabilitation.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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