This is an amazing flip-flop: Chirlane McCray, wife of likely Republican Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, was forced to release a statement yesterday admitting that, yes, she was a lesbian before she met her husband, currently the city's public advocate.

"[I] identified as a lesbian and wrote about it," she said after Hunter Walker at The Observer dug up a 1979 Essence magazine article Ms. McCray wrote called "I Am a Lesbian."

"I survived the tears, the isolation and the feeling that something was terribly wrong with me for loving another woman," she wrote. “Coming to terms with my life as a lesbian has been easier for me than it has been for many. Since I don’t look or dress like the typical bulldagger, I have a choice as to whether my sexual preference is known.”

Then, a sentence that she could never have known could complicate a future husband's political career: "I have also been fortunate because I discovered my preference for women early, before getting locked into a traditional marriage and having children.”

Reacting to the story yesterday, McCray said that meeting Bill in 1991 changed everything: "In 1991, I met the love of my life, married him, and together we’ve raised two amazing kids. I’m reminded every day how lucky I am to have met my soul mate."