Newt Gingrich seems to be getting his conservative Christian credentials all locked up. First, as Sarah Morice-Brubaker has pointed out, he signed the Personhood USA Pledge even though it is at odds with his own “pro-life” beliefs. Now, the twice-divorced and thrice-married former Congressman has signed the National Organization for Marriage’s pledge to defend “traditional” marriage and defend “religious liberty,” which is code for defending the religious right’s ability to bully gay and lesbian people at will using God as their shield.
But, wait, there’s more. Gingrich has hit the conservative Christian trifecta by sitting down with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board to affirm that opposition to marriage equality stating that there is a “big difference between saying that you’re to have an acceptance of people’s lifestyles and saying that you’re now going to normalize that as a standard for the whole country.”
Gingrich also told the editorial board that gay and lesbian people can choose to be straight just like people can “choose to be celibate.”
Gingrich said he believes being gay is “a combination of genetics and environment,” which means a person may be born with a “propensity” to be gay, but, hey, that doesn’t mean they have to be that way. They have a choice, after all.
People choose many things in life. You know, there is a bias in favor of non-celibacy. It’s part of how the species re-creates. And yet there is a substantial amount of people who choose celibacy as a religious vocation or for other reasons.
Gingrich is blowing all the right notes on the religious right dog whistle here—building up his anti-abortion and anti-gay credentials—but I’m not sure I’m completely convinced. Perhaps the evidence I have is small, but I think it’s significant.
In her recent appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show, Gingrich’s half-sister Candace Gingrich-Jones said that while her brother did not attend her wedding (since he was out of town) “they did send a gift.” As someone who has anti-gay siblings, I find this to be significant. The siblings that refused to attend my wedding never, ever sent a gift. Any acknowledgement of my marriage to my partner would have been tantamount to approving of it—even sending a gift. The fact that Gingrich sent his sister a wedding gift is telling, I think.
He may be blowing the dog whistle for conservative Christian voters, but I think, personally, Gingrich may sing a different tune when it comes to the lives of real gays and lesbians. A girl can hope, anyway.
