Newt Gingrich: Gays Should 'Support Obama'
12.21.2011
By Mike Berlin
A mere four days after Candace Gingrich-Jones told The Advocate that the entire pack of Republicans leading the 2012 presidential nomination race was "disappointing," her half-brother and GOP frontrunner, Newt, illustrated that point perfectly at a campaign event in Iowa.
“I asked him, if he’s elected, how does he plan to engage gay American? How are we to support him?" Scott Arnold, a gay professor at William Penn University, told the Des Moines Register. "And he told me to support Obama. When you ask somebody a question and you expect them to support all Americans and have everyone’s general interest, it’s a little bit frustrating and disheartening when you’re told to support the other side. That he doesn’t need your support."
Obviously, Gingrinch (Merry X-Mas!) is not going to lose tons of LGBT followers with this revelation, since there probably aren't that many to begin with. But his response is that of pure disengagement—a strategy that many, if not all, prominent candidates in the Republican race have awkwardly tried to employ when it comes to gay issues (that, or just using words to create sentences that don't have any coherent meaning).
Is the GOP's 2012 election strategy, openly forsaking an entire segment of the population, really viable? There's definitely an elephant in the room—we just didn't realize it was us.
Photo: Getty Images
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There is a huge disconnect between what the article says and what Newt says. I could write a better article.
What happened to Newts white trash mother who couldnt throw down her cigarette long enough to talk to Connie Chung? And she sure must have gotten rid of Connie!!
Well HELLO.... Why would any self respecting GLBT not support Obama. Gingrich's stand of such issues involving the "community" as a whole is the very CANCER so many are working hard to destroy. Basically everyone of (at least those that matter) the GOP candidates has repeatedly made clear they have no use for the GLBT community. Yet there are those who still want to throw their support behind these cast of idiots. How many times must you endure a slap in the face......? Obama and Clinton are the only presidents who have supported and given the GLBT community respect and dignity. Gingrich will set this country back 50 years.....
Uhhmmm. You think BILL CLINTON supported the gay community?! He passed The Defense of Marriage Act AND Don't Ask Don't Tell!
Political affiliations =/= Homophobia.
Anon, were you around in the 90s? DOMA and DADT were the next possible steps. DOMA made it possible for individual states to legalize gay marriage and DADT made it possible for gays to stay in the military if they could stay quiet. Before DADT, gays got kicked out even when in the closet. All the time. When I heard they were going to repeal DADT, I was afraid it was going to go back to the way ti was before. So don't knock him--he did as much as he could with what he was given.
Obama on the other hand, has been given much and not done a thing with it.
Gingrich never said gays should support Obama. He clearly said those who rank gay marriage as the most important election issue should vote for Obama. He is right. I actually appreciate the direct answer, none of the equivocating that we have come to expect from politicians in either party. Like many LGBT voters my greatest concerns are over the economy, not national recognition of gay marriage. If anything I think this video helps him.
Gingrich never said gays should support Obama. He clearly said those who rank gay marriage as the most important election issue should vote for Obama. He is right. I actually appreciate the direct answer, none of the equivocating that we have come to expect from politicians in either party. Like many LGBT voters my greatest concerns are over the economy, not national recognition of gay marriage. If anything I think this video helps him.
Newt: You are a bumptious twit.
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