Death Of The Week: Jack McGeorge

With apologies to Mapplethorpe. Image: Very sweded.

Dearly Departed: Chemical and biological weapons expert Harvey John “Jack” McGeorge II, 1949-2009.

Cause Of Death: Complications during heart surgery.

Greatest Achievement: Being out and proud as a BDSM enthusiast and still getting the gig at the UN to work on weapons inspections in Iraq.

Harvey John “Jack” McGeorge II was an ex-marine, ex-Secret Service agent and a longtime authority on chemical and biological warfare. He was awarded a PhD for his work in the field of chemical and biological terrorism. He was the president and principal consultant for the elite consultancy organisation Public Safety Group. Trouble, for some, was the fact that Jack McGeorge was also co-founder and past president of another organisation: Black Rose.

What is Black Rose, you ask if you didn’t click on the above link? Well, it’s a pansexual BDSM group in Washington, promoting the responsible enjoyment of “the many different expressions of power in love and play”. Yes, McGeorge founded a BDSM non-profit. He was also a ‘founding officer’ of the Leather Leadership Conference Inc. And he wasn’t coy about it. His name appeared throughout both organisations’ literature.

With the valuable experience from the first paragraph, he became a munitions analyst for the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission during the ill-fated Iraqi inspections that proved there were no WMDs but were still used to justify the war that, remember, we’re still conducting.

When McGeorge was appointed, John Grimaldi of the Washington Post decided to poke the beehive and “out” him. Soon enough right-wing shitheels and aspirant wits started mocking the man. Even Kerry Lauerman from the relatively reputable Salon interviewed a close friend in a manner suggesting he couldn’t wait to disinfect himself afterwards. Timothy Noah from Slate was less repelled, but still somehow equated consenting sexual psychodrama with actual torture by Saddam’s regime.

During the hubbub, Jack McGeorge stated: “I have been very upfront with people in the past about what I do, and it has never prevented me from getting a job or doing service. I am who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am – not one bit. But I cannot allow my actions, as they may be perceived by others, to damage an organisation which has done nothing to deserve that damage.” He tendered his resignation to UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.

But a beautiful thing happened: no one gave a shit. Perhaps as a result of his über-tolerant Swedish upbringing, Blix refused to accept McGeorge’s resignation. Blix’s spokesman Ewen Buchanan told the Washington Post, “We believe that Mr McGeorge is a highly qualified and competent technical expert.” Exactly.

Spokeswoman for Kofi Annan, Hua Jiang, reiterated that McGeorge’s private activities would cause no more cross-cultural discord in Iraq than any number of West-vs-Middle East issues. Hell, McGeorge being an American ex-marine was probably a million times more contentious than his devotion to a little slap and tickle.

Shittily enough, we still went to war. Nonetheless, the doomed inspections ended up giving us an obtuse ray of hope. Not only due to his efforts as a respected pioneer in the Washington BDSM community, but for his bravery at not succumbing to narrow-mindedness in a particularly repressive era in American political life, McGeorge should still be commended in death.

He will be missed.

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