Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's
opposition to gay rights has softened, Candace Gingrich-Jones, 45,
recently said of her half-brother.
The day before the former House Speaker
faced a large exodus of campaign staffers, Gingrich-Jones, who is
openly lesbian, told
The
Huffington Post that her brother had changed, and gave his
third wife of 11-years, Callista, credit for the alterations.
“When he was speaker, he had no
qualms about talking about why workplace protection is a bad idea and
how gays aren't families,” she said. “It is possible that
Callista has had a moderating effect … she's possibly gotten LGBT
issues to no longer be a red meat issue for him politically.”
“I'm pissed but I get it,” she
said, referring to Gingrich's financial and political support of a
successful effort to oust three of the seven Iowa Supreme Court
justices whose 2009 ruling legalized gay marriage in the state. “I
don't think that there is anything that he does that isn't well
thought-out and doesn't have a purpose behind it. It's Iowa. The
first caucus state.”
Gingrich-Jones is a gay activist who
works for the Human Rights Campaign.