Being gay is a fundamental part of my being - the core of who I've always been, and the thing that I had repressed and run from all my life.

My truth is that I am a gay American.

I am resigning because my secret leaves the governor's office vulnerable.

I realized that I had screwed up my life living different parts of my life in different places. I wasn't whole. I wasn't integrated. I wasn't a complete person. And after that, came out, spent some time at a psychiatric hospital.

As I climbed the electoral ladder - from state assemblyman to mayor of Woodbridge and finally to governor of New Jersey - political compromises came easy to me because I'd learned how to keep a part of myself innocent of them.

I'm enjoying prison ministry, particularly with the women in Hudson County Jail who have suffered tremendously in their lives.

I'm grateful for my brokenness. I'm grateful for my humility.