Newt Gingrich on Thursday called the
patchwork of gay marriage laws a “mess” and called for a federal
ban, media watchdog RightWingWatch.org
reported.
During a Gingrich Faith Leaders
Coalition conference call, which included guest speakers Jim Garlow
and J.C. Watts, Gingrich reiterated his support for a federal
amendment that defines marriage as a heterosexual union and called
for a federal law that would prohibit states from legalizing gay
nuptials.
“I have a question regarding all the
laws that people are trying to make for gay rights,” a female
caller said. “I heard what you said about marriage being between a
man and a woman and I agree, that's what God said in the very
beginning in the Book of Genesis. But the laws of our land are
seeing more and more states allowing gay marriage. How can we stop
this? It is so profoundly wrong.”
“I think ultimately we're going to
have to have a federal amendment because at the rate we're going, you
might be able to pass a federal law, but at the rate we're going it's
going to be just chaos, you're going to have some states that say
it's all right and other states that say it's not all right. How are
people going to travel? What are their legal rights? It is a mess,”
Gingrich answered. “I think if we are going to defend marriage in
the end it will probably require a federal law.”
“What's the difference, what they're
saying between a woman wants to be with a woman, when is it going to
be, 'I want to marry a dog' or 'I want to marry a cow'?” That
makes as much sense. What they are saying is doing something stupid
like that,” the woman responded.
Gingrich suggested that gay
relationships were not moral: “[R]emember we have now had a whole
two generations of teachers who explained to us, 'You shouldn't
render moral judgment. After all it's situation ethics, who are we
to decide?' and that's been a major problem.” (The audio is
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