Newt Gingrich: Gay people should be more tolerant of homophobes
Republican Newt Gingrich has claimed that gay people need to be more tolerant of people who are against homosexuality.
The former presidential candidate was speaking on CNN, after an anti-gay football player – who said openly gay player Michael Sam was “disgusting” for kissing his boyfriend on TV – was barraged with angry comments.
Gingrich said: “You guys talk about how you want to be inclusive, except of course if somebody tweets this, then [there are] death threats or let’s send them off to sensitivity training.
“I mean it strikes me that that’s repression, that’s not inclusive. Shouldn’t you also be teaching people who are gay to be open and understanding [of anti-gay views]?”
He also claimed of Michael Sam: “This whole thing is a fiasco. You have a clever young guy, who has manipulated the system.”
Gingrich, who stood for the Republican Presidential Nomination in 2012 and lost out to Mitt Romney, had previously accused the gay rights movement of “new fascism”.
In December 2012 Gingrich offered tentative support for same-sex marriage, despite his prior anti-gay views.
His lesbian half-sister had at the time praised his U-turn on the issue, but Gingrich has since repeatedly condemned gay rights activists.
Watch the clip below, via Media Matters:
