The GOP's "Man of Ideas" is as Anti-LGBT as They Come

by Michael Jones · 2009-06-09 07:10:00 UTC
Topics:

Newt Gingrich

Republicans held a major fundraiser event last night in Washington, graced by the presence of Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Orrin Hatch, Jon Voight (because we all care what the guy who played "Ed" in Deliverance has to say about politics), and of course, Newt Gingrich, who was touted as the GOP's "Man of Ideas" and the "Architect of the Last Reform Movement."

If Newt Gingrich is the GOP's "Man of Ideas" and the leader that they're re-turning to in order to resurrect the party, then the Republican Party brand has just anointed the most anti-LGBT spokesperson in decades.

Gingrich has said that there's a "gay fascism" sweeping the country, and that LGBT people are prepared to resort to violence in order to advance politically.  Gingrich has (as recently as April 2009) willingly partnered with the American Family Association, an organization that regularly screams against homosexuality and threatens to boycott companies who even advertise in LGBT publications.

And just last week, Gingrich appeared with Mike Huckabee on a GodTV special hosted by anti-gay marriage militant Lou Engle.  Not only was Engle one of the fiercest warriors in favor of Proposition 8, the ballot measure which banned same-sex marriage in California, Engle has been the subject of recent controversy over the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, a reproductive health doctor in Wichita, Kansas nearly two weeks ago.

You see, Engle is on the record as saying legalized abortion has incurred a blood debt that can only be repaid with blood, and has publicly called for Christian martyrs to make sacrifices to defeat both LGBT rights and reproductive health for women.  Engle is a deranged man.

Yet, Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee gladly share a stage with him.

Newt Gingrich is certainly a man of ideas.  But make no mistake: his ideas are to strip LGBT people of basic civil rights, to win the support of extremely radical religious figures who champion "blood debts" in fighting abortion and LGBT rights, and to trash talk President Obama as a failure, even though Obama's administration is barely four months old.

That hardly seems like a visionary to me.  Sure, that might appeal to the Jon Voights and the Mitch McConnells around the country.  But for people who have come to believe that demonizing and hating the "other" make for bad politics, well then, Newt Gingrich is just offering more of the same.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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