Newt Gingrich's gay half-sister Candace Gingrich-Jones said that she disagrees with her brother on gay rights issues, and that she will support Barack Obama in the 2012 election.
Gingrich-Jones, a gay rights activist, said in an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that she and her older half-brother were "mutually respectful" but disagree on gay rights.
"He is definitely on the wrong side of history when it comes to those issues," Gingrich-Jones said, according to Reuters.
She also said that she would "work really, really hard to make sure that President Obama is re-elected next year no matter who the Republican candidate is."
According to Gingrich-Jones, she wouldn't be surprised if Gingrich, who is known for his conservative views on LGBT rights, used those issues to gain political clout in the elections.
In 2008, after watching her brother bash protesters of Proposition 8 on Fox News, Gingrich-Jones wrote an open letter on The Huffington Post:
What really worries me is that you are always willing to use LGBT Americans as political weapons to further your ambitions. That's really so '90s, Newt. In this day and age, it's embarrassing to watch you talk like that. You should be more afraid of the new political climate in America, because, there is no place for you in it.
In other words, stop being a hater, big bro.
According to the International Business Times, though Gingrich was invited to his half-sister's wedding to her lesbian partner he chose to not attend the event.
"I believe that marriage is between a man and woman," he told a crowd at Fort Dodge in Iowa in September. "It has been for all of recorded history."
Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, has recently surged in the polls for the 2012 GOP nomination.
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