“Look, I’m happy to say I come out of a tradition, that is several thousand years old, that says marriage is between a man and a woman,” former House speaker and CPAC guest Newt Gingrich told a George Washington University audience last night during a debate with Howard Dean. “And I’m prepared to defend that tradition, and I happen to believe it. And I have as much right to my belief as you have to yours.” It’s not that Newt doesn’t believe you have the right to believe gays can get married. It’s just that he believes his belief is more beliefier than your belief. See how that works? And if you don’t believe me, remember this is the same man who thinks “there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment” and is “prepared to use the government if it can get control of it.”
[flv:http://media.queerty.net/newtmarriage.mp4 https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/2011/02/newtg1.jpg 650 400]
mike99
Hmm…. isn’t this the same man who was having an affair on his wife while vigorously trying to impeach President Clinton for… having an affair on his wife? Credibility on marriage related issues: Absolutely none. Bye falicia.
TikiHead
Apparently he recognizes that cheating on ones wives is also an ancient tradition.
TikiHead
“there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment”
That’s just classical projection, something Conservatives are expert at doing.
Andy
@TikiHead: No, it was worse. You’re forgetting that he served divorce papers to his wife in the hospital while she was undergoing cancer treatment.
She wasn’t a fetus, so who cares.
Shannon1981
He who is without sin casts the first stone…
This dude is an adulterer. Who the hell is he to pas judgment AT ALL. Hypocritical bigot.
“use violence, to use harassment” Isn’t that what they do to us?
orpheus_lost
This is very simple. Gingrich believes that marriage is between a man and a woman – sometimes several women in quick succession. That truly is his right and I respect his right to believe whatever bigoted, hateful ideology he chooses.
However, while Gingrich has an inherent right to BELIEVE in a narrowly focused definition of marriage that suits his own orientation, he does not have an inherent right to force that other people live their lives according to his ideological, pseudo-religious beliefs.
If Gingrich doesn’t believe in marriage equality he doesn’t have to marry another man. If he doesn’t believe in abortion he doesn’t have to get one. If he doesn’t believe in a social safety net he doesn’t have to take advantage of it.
Gingrich’s problem (and that of everyone else who promotes hateful rhetoric) isn’t that he believes in something, it is that he wants to force by law that the rest of us conform to his beliefs of what we should do, say, feel, and think. His belief are not what hurts us, it is his eagerness to enforce his hatred using a jail cell or a rifle.
B
No. 4 · Andy wrote, “@TikiHead: No, it was worse. You’re forgetting that he served divorce papers to his wife in the hospital while she was undergoing cancer treatment.”
He (Gingrich) got the history of marriage wrong too. Aside from some same-sex marriages in the past (for example, Nero got what Nero wanted), marriage historically was between a man and as many women as he could pay for. Islam reigned it in a bit and but a limit (I think) of four wives per person, I imagine to keep the rich guys from hogging all the women, but multiple wives are still allowed in some Islamic countries today. And we won’t go into the Mormons (far more recent, although they banned polygamy in order for Utah to become a state).
greenmanTN
I’m assuming there was a Q&A session after his speech, so why doesn’t anyone ever ASK his about these things?!
“Mr Gingrich, it’s well know that you cheated on your wife and had divorce papers served on her while she was undergoing cancer treatment, so aren’t your opinions about ‘the sanctity of marriage’ hypocritical in the extreme and about as meaningful as a grammar lesson from Sarah Palin?”
the crustybastard
If he insists that Biblical marriage is the basis of the law, then I must insist on my Biblical right to stone him to death for adultery.
justiceontherocks
@B: That was wife number one. He is now on number three. Newt appears to be a leading candidate for “biggest threat to traditional marriage.”
I Remember
Newt Gingrich is 100% correct his tradition and that of marriage is one between a man and a woman. The woman was usually sold along with other goods that made up her dowry. This was sanctioned by religious entities and all was good.
My issue is with anyone getting married in the USA. Marriage is religious. Religious institutions should carry them out. The government has no business in marriage if we are to actually separate “church and state.” All unions between two consenting adults (whatever their gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) should be carried out by a State Official; not a priest, minister, rabbi, or imam. It is these State officiated ceremony that should count towards the rights associated with marriage. If a couple chooses to also have a religious ceremony, how nice for them. It should have ZERO bearing on what the state views as an official union.
One of the CA 36,000
@I Remember: You are 100% WRONG.
Marriage was first a CONTRACTUAL UNION OF TWO FAMILIES THROUGH THEIR CHILDREN. MARRIAGE PREDATES RELIGION BY CENTURIES!!!
Religion only got into the mix when they learned they could make money off of it.
Religious officiants have the power to preside over legal marriages in the US ONLY because the States in which they practice give them TEMPORARY NOTARY POWERS to execute marriage licenses. In most of the rest of the civilized world, the only LEGALLY BINDING marriages are executed at the Justice of the Peace. The religious marriage ceremony is OPTIONAL.
And how do we know marriage is a CIVIL contract? Easy. You have to go through the COURTS to DISSOLVE it through a legal DIVORCE.
Jesus, some people are so f!cking stubborn about this. Marriage is CIVIL. The God-themed Princess Perfect Costume Party is a f!cking WEDDING. Without the State’s permission, no church could execute a LEGALLY BINDING marriage.
Would everyone f!cking STOP calling marriage “religious”?! IT IS NOT.
Andy
@B: Fun fact: Nero actually had marriages to men, as did a lot of Roman emperors.
Cam
“”Look, I’m happy to say I come out of a tradition, that is several thousand years old””
The belief that says a man may divorce his wife by fax while she is laying in her hospital bed?
Red Meat
What an idiot, he just said we have the right to our own beliefs… yet he is trying to oppress his on us.
Comixbear
@mike99: Twice…He cheated on wife #1 with future wife #2, and then cheated on wife #2 with future wife #3.
Mark
Gingrich is a piece of work. He’s the poster boy for traditional adultery, traditional serial marriage, tradition serial divorce and faith-based bigotry. His ginormous ego has led him to believe that he’s Presidential material. That’s rich!
John
@Andy: Yeah, an underage boy that he had castrated and made him answer to his dead wife’s name – said dead wife probably murdered by Nero himself. Not a very charming example.
B
No. 13 · Andy wrote, “@B: Fun fact: Nero actually had marriages to men, as did a lot of Roman emperors.”
Hey, if the Christians at the time had the same opinion as fundamentalist Christians do today about same-sex marriages, no wonder Nero threw them to the lions!
hf2hvit
Why do right-wingers love adultery and adulterers so much? You don’t see them throwing confirmed, admitted, and often repeat adulterers out of office or out of their party.
GINGRICH, LIMBAUGH, VITTER, MC CAIN, CRAIG, PALADINO, GIULIANI, BARR, ENSIGN
Mike B's Husband
When right wingnuts start throwing around the “F” word: you know, “Fascist,” which is politer than “Nazi,” I can only say: “Methinks she doth protest too much.” Watch the Right for swastikas, coming soon to a flagpole near you. They won’t be hoisted by anyone gay.
McMike
The ‘tradition of marriage’ for the right wing: Adultery.
Right wing Christians have the highest divorce rate.
adman
Gingrich is going to run for the Repuke primary, that’s what this means. I wonder if words even mean anything to him at this point.
B
No. 22 · McMike wrote, “Right wing Christians have the highest divorce rate.”
Hey, I know a guy who was divorced by a fundamentalist Christian over religious differences – he thought one religion was more or less as good as another and wanted their kid exposed to all sorts of ideas.
FlameoftheWest
Yes Mr. Gingrich you have the right to yor belief, but you can’t deny the rights of your fellow Americans based on that beleif.
ewe
Why does anyone bother to give that fool coverage? He is a well established moral hypocrite.
Jeff K.
The man has a face like his namesake.
Pip
Republican Nazis need to stop raising this straw man. No one in the gay rights movement is oppressing the ability of heterosexuals to get married. Gingrich has increasingly become a total wack-job since Obamas been in office. Dude needs to have a pitch fork shoved up his ass.
christopher di spirito
So Newt Gingrich’s position on marriage equality is exactly the same as President Pootie Tang?
Joey O'H
Gingrich has skid marks in his underwear.
robert in NYC
The only fascist agenda in America is the GOP’s right wing psycho-talkers such as Palin, Bachman, Huckabee, Pawlenty, DeMint et al,the true face of the GOP.I’d like to ask him how same-sex marriage has had any effect on his right to commit adultery while his wife lay dying of cancer in a hospital bed and who has since committed adultery on his second wife, long before gays could marry in Massachusetts. What next, gays cause adultery? He’s one sick bastard!
BenFrankly
Lets just pray this guy never gets anywhere near the Presidency.
He’s sounding out the waters for a Presidential bid but both he and Pawlenty don’t get it – American’s are Live and Let live Libertarians when it comes to gay marriage. Republican wins in the Congress were based entirely on Fiscal concerns and those that think they have ANY mandate whatsoever for an evangelical social agenda are out of touch with reality and risk being the Anita Bryant redux.
ewe
I still did not hear a valid defense and you better believe he is going to have to defend his twisted logic. We cannot fall for the way the fundies flip an issue to make themselves the victims by being the agressor that fights for the majority that persecutes the few. It’s complete bullshit.
TJ Parker
Newt! I’m sorry but a divorced adulterous Catholic doesn’t get to lecture me on marriage. What Jesus said – explicitly – about marriage is clear: you and your first wife are one flesh, and you’re still married to her and will be until death. Despite that you’ve been committing adultery with your second wife for more than a decade.
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger: he’s your Messiah, not mine.
Brian Miller
But Mr. Gingrich, you don’t “believe in that tradition” and you have not “defended it.”
Your adulterous, multiple-divorce family life shows that while you talk about “traditional marriage” and “one man, one woman,” what you really believe in is a swinger lifestyle of partners-of-convenience. Which makes you just about as close to the traditional definition of “fraud” as any politician of the last 20 years.
Brian Miller
@TJ Parker: Actually, he’s on his third wife now.
His first wife was his teacher. He divorced her while she was on her hospital bed in intensive care, recovering from a near-deadly fight with cancer.
Then he “married” Marianne, his second wife. She was his wife while he was in Congress. He ended up starting an affair with his secretary, having sex with her in a car in the congressional parking garage several times a day, while still married to Marianne. He ended up divorcing Marianne after the relationship became an open secret and “marrying” the secretary.
And he’s going to lecture people on “morality” and “traditional marriage?” I’ve known prostitutes who are less shameless in their swinger living than Mr. Gingrich, who chooses to call his latest temporary sexual relationship a “marriage.”
robert in NYC
Nobody ever goes after Gingrich regarding his adulterous lifestyle. I’d love to see someone do that on t.v. so that the country can see what a bunch of hypocritical bigots these republicans are. He and his party are morally bankrupt!
Shannon1981
I don’t understand how he has the gall to even TALK about marriage or the sanctity of it(or anything else for that matter) when his track record is such a sight to behold. And furthermore, how can his right wing sheeple believe him?
Queer Supremacist - Heil Homo!
He is practicing a “traditional” “marriage”. Then when he gets bored with his latest whore he’ll find another one and have a “traditional” “marriage”. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Typical breeder goyim. If he believes there’s a “gay fascism” in this country, let’s give it to him. Start with a boycott of breeder businesses, then another kristallnacht, and then the “final solution”. Only this time nobody’s going to build museums for you worthless parasites. Homo homo über alles!
robert in NYC
Queer Supremacist, well said! He’s an evil piece of human filth like many in the GOP and one of the worst bigoted hypocrites in their party. Its a breeding ground for hate, in fact their party is infested with them.
Ian in Ohio
Why hasn’t this piece of trash died and gone to hell yet?