Are You Sitting Down? Newt Gingrich Approves of Gay Marriage, Sort of

Are You Sitting Down?  Newt Gingrich Approves of Gay Marriage, Sort of

Former House Speaker and Ultra-Conservative Supports Civil Gay Marriage

Reflecting the nation’s trend toward acceptance of gay marriage, Newt Gingrich says he can accept the “reality” of marriage between same-sex couples if it’s a legal document issued by the state. However, Gingrich, who formerly served Georgia’s 6th Congressional district from 1979 to 1999, still believes that marriage is defined between a man and a woman.

From Equating Same-Sex Marriage to Paganism to Seeing It as Reality

The former Presidential hopeful who has been married three times, believes that the Republican party can distinguish between church and state-issued same-sex marriages and learn to accept the latter.

Why is Gingrich changing his stand?  When he was one of the architects of Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) signed by Clinton in 1996, he did not approve of  the sexual orientation of his lesbian half-sister Candace Gingrich-Jones. She works for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT political group. But today, he credits Candace, who has a same-sex marriage, with helping change his mind.

Newt is the first to admit that he didn’t see the coming power of the LGBT community and its allies as far back as 1996, but now understands the wave of change that’s sweeping over the nation, according to Chad Griffin, HRC’s president.

Gingrich’s Predictions for Gay Marriage

In a story published on December 20th in The Huffington Post, Gingrich told reporters “the momentum is clearly now in the direction of finding some way to … accommodate and deal with reality.  And the reality is going to be that in a number of American states – and it will be more after 2014—gay relationships will be legal, period.

It’s in every family. It’s in every community.” Gingrich even admits that he has gay friends who got married in Iowa. “ I think that this will be much more difficult than immigration for conservatism to come to grips with, “ he attests. Now a converted Catholic, who distances himself from Southern Baptists, Gingrich sees the debate changing after voters elected a record number of out LGBT politicians to Congress and marriage equality measures in Washington, Maine, and Maryland.

What The Republican Party Needs to Do

Although Gingrich took a hard stand against same-sex marriage while campaigning for the Republican nomination this year, he now thinks the Republican party will have to find a way to adjust.  The opposition to gay marriage is dying as statistics, voters, and now he indicate.

The group Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry agree.  “Our party must keep pace with the American people if it is to remain relevant in the political process, and as we saw in the recent election, we have some changes to make. “