Is Lord John Browne cutting all ties to the business world? Less than two weeks ago, the German-born aristocrat resigned from British Petroleum after lying about how he met his former gay lover. Now, Browne's distanced himself from the board of titanic investment bank, Goldman Sachs. WSJ reports:

BP PLC former Chief Executive John Browne resigned from the board of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a week after leaving the oil company over a personal scandal.

A person familiar with the matter said Lord Browne offered to resign from Goldman Sachs because of the reputation issue that followed his public acknowledgment of having lied to a British high court about his former lover.

Goldman Sachs big wig Lloyd Blankman says, "Browne has made an enormous contribution to Goldman Sachs and our culture of teamwork, excellence and client service". Wait..isn't it client service that brought Browne down?

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Disgraced British Petroleum bigwig Lord John Browne may not have read The Mail on Sunday, but rest assured millions of people drooled over the details of his relationship with a former escort, Jeff Chevalier.

Considering that Chevalier's interview with The Mail led to Browne's outing and subsequent resignation, one would expect an explosive regaling of the men's sexual exploits, perhaps a bit of drug use and oodles of scandal. Instead all we get is a bit of name dropping. Conrad Black, Tony Blair, Hugh Grant - they're all there and just as bland as you can imagine. In fact, the only truly interesting bit from this sensationally overblown interview comes at the end, when Chevalier explains the emotional tension that led his breakup with Browne:

I was open to a lifestyle that people could only imagine about. It was all new to me and for the first few years a novelty. But after a while it became almost unbearable.

Billionaires remembered me, but I did not remember them. The anxiety grew from not remembering these notables who knew me but whom I did not remember.

Ultimately I experienced panic attacks from the thought of not knowing to whom I was speaking. John could not understand why his world was so difficult for me.
...
I lost all ability to function as John Browne's partner. He did not understand my anxieties and I had no ability to understand his concerns. We were worlds apart and we both grew to realize this.

The distance grew too wide and the men parted ways, sending Chevalier back to his penniless life, while Browne would continue reveling in his riches. That is, of course, until Chevalier sat down for this interview - a conversation given far more weight than it deserves. Talk about a bummer...

Lord John Browne may be feeling a little down after being outed and subsequently stepping down as British Petroleum's head honcho, but maybe a bit of homo haiku will cheer him up.

Mark from Slap Upside the Head has penned an epic of a poem in his honor. Here's but a snippet:

Don’t you find it strange
one would risk resignation
over coming out?

Clients shouldn’t flee
careers should not be ruined
just because you’re gay

Nicely done, but to just be clear: Browne didn't really quit because he's gay. He left over that whole perjury thing. But, yes, he perjured himself to save gay face over meeting a hooker in a park and then dating him for four years, so that's sort of like quitting over being gay. Only far more salacious...

There's been no shortage of reaction over Lord John Browne's gay affair-induced resignation from British Petroleum. While some people have expressed muted outrage over his so-called "deceit", a number of journos have come out in support of Browne, insisting he's a victim. By threatening to publish an interview with Browne's former love, The Mail on Sunday ventured into uncharted, unjust territory.

Never one to miss a good scandal, gay activist and potential politician Peter Tatchell has penned a Guardian editorial on the matter. Though Tatchell doesn't approve of Browne's decision to stay in the closet - "Staying forever in the closet is not a morally clean decision" - he derides The Mail's nefarious approach to Browne's personal life:

Having said all this, there was no demonstrable public interest grounds for the Mail on Sunday - or any other media - outing Lord Browne. He wasn't being hypocritical or homophobic. If he was denouncing gay people or advocating anti-gay laws - or if he had authorised the hounding of BPs' gay employees - that would be a justifiable reason to expose his double standards.
...
He may have shown moral weakness by not coming out, but hiding in the closet - however lamentable - is not ethically of the same order as endorsing homophobic prejudice and discrimination.

Quite right. Tatchell's also correct when he points out that Browne true "crime" isn't keeping a boy toy, but that he lied about how the two met - a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. A minor detail, yes, but a major part of Browne's sexual psychology.

[Read On ...]