Newt Gingrich has been taking a strong stand on an issue that could be a tough one for him — opposing the legalization of gay marriage, in the name of defending the institution of marriage itself — and has just signed a pledge from the anti-gay marriage group the National Organization for Marriage.
“We commend Newt Gingrich for signing NOM’s presidential marriage pledge, committing himself to play a leadership role as president to preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” said a press release from NOM president Brian Brown. “Mr. Gingrich joins all the other major candidates who have made a similar commitment, save for one–Ron Paul. Now we will embark on an intensive communications program to inform Iowa voters who will stand with them to preserve marriage, and who has abandoned them on marriage.”
The institution of marriage could be a third rail as a campaign issue for Gingrich. He is on his third marriage, and he originally began secretly seeing his current wife Callista for several years during his second marriage — at the same time as he was pursuing the impeachment of President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. (And over a decade before that affair, Gingrich was still married to his first wife when he began a relationship with the woman who became his second wife.)
Also, in an interview with the Des Moines Register, Gingrich disputed gay-rights activists comparison of their cause with the civil rights struggles of racial groups — and seemed to simultaneously acknowledge that homosexuality is based in the individual’s biology, while also saying that it is still a choice:
Gingrich said it is offensive to compare the two movements and that there is an enormous difference between “an inescapable fact of race” and same-sex marriage. Upon further questioning he said he believes people are gay out of a combination of genetics and environment.
“People have many choices within genetic patterns,” Gingrich said.
Also earlier this week, Gingrich finally responded to an effort by an Iowa conservative group, the Family Leader, to get candidates to sign a pledge called the “Marriage Vow,” in which they would oppose gay marriage, abortion, pornography, “Sharia Islam” and other issues — and also that they would also pledge fidelity to their own spouse.
Rather than directly sign the pledge, Gingrich sent a letter to the group on Monday, in which he agreed with their policy points in his own words. He did indeed say: “I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.”
