Gay half-sister of Republican Gingrich backs Obama
Reuters) - The gay half-sister of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich slammed his position on gay rights on Wednesday and said she will support President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the 2012 election.
Candace Gingrich-Jones, a gay rights activist, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that she and her older half-brother, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, were “mutually respectful” but disagree on gay rights.
“He is definitely on the wrong side of history when it comes to those issues,” Gingrich-Jones said.
Candace Gingrich-Jones told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (video below), adding that she and her half-brother are “mutually respectful” of each other—which is helpful considering he didn’t attend her wedding and that come election time, she is planning to “work really, really hard to make sure that President Obama is re-elected next year no matter who the Republican candidate is.” And “mutual respect” must come into play when your brother recently told Iowans that marriage equality “is a temporary aberration that will dissipate. I think that it is just fundamentally goes against everything we know.” Maddow noted that Jones-Gingrich hasn’t been afraid to voice her dissent with her brother’s conservative views, dating back to when he was Speaker of the House. “At the end of the day, we are a family and that’s important,” she said. “The catch is that when we leave the dinner table or leave the Christmas gathering, you know he and Callista still have way more rights than my wife and Rebecca and I do.”