Gingrich speaks at University

Anxiously awaiting the appearance of Candace Gingrich, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's half sister, more than 150 people chatted in the steamy upstairs room of the Christian Association Tuesday night. Gingrich, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, is in the middle of a six month, 51 city tour promoting the group's National Coming Out Project. Petite, feminine and smartly dressed, the 29-year-old Gingrich warmed up the audience with her articulate and friendly delivery. She spoke mainly about her own experience of coming out with her sexuality -- first in college, then to her family and then to the public. "I have not once regretted coming out," she said. She said she first came to terms with her sexuality while playing on the women's rugby team at the Illinois University of Pennsylvania. When Gingrich's mother found a lesbian newsletter in Candace's room a few months later, she asked her daughter, "Are you trying to tell me something?" That led Gingrich to inform her family, which has continued to treat her with "love and respect," but they haven't discussed it further. Before her brother became Speaker of the House, Gingrich did not belong to gay rights groups, and did not reveal her sexuality. "I made a conscious effort not to tell -- my own self-imposed 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," she said. Gingrich said she sees the tour as an "opportunity and obligation" to make a difference. But she feels that for herself and others, coming out is worth the risk. "Look at the civil rights movement, the suffragists," she said. "There was no gain without risk. Until we come out, until we put a face to this population of people, there will be no progress." She has recently signed a book deal with Scribner's, which will cover her life as well as that of her family. "It's about me, and [Newt] is a part of my life," she said. "I feel it has a good message to get across." Gingrich's message includes an appeal to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals to join the HRCF's efforts to secure equal rights for and end discrimination against them. One of the organization's recent efforts has been to pressure Congress to pass the Employment NonDiscrimination Act, which would make it illegal to fire an employee solely on the basis of their sexual orientation. At times this has forced her to fight her brother's political party and the religious right. "We can't let our administration do our work for us," she said. But Gingrich maintains that her brother supports legislation that she disagrees with to appease the voters who support him, and that "he is probably at heart a Goldwater Republican." "A lot of religious groups actually support gay and lesbian rights," she said. "It's unfortunate that some radical groups hide behind Christianity to attack us," she said. And when asked about her own religious association, the agnostic Gingrich admitted that religious beliefs are a source of difference in her family. "My parents are Lutheran, my brother and his wife are Baptist, my two sisters are Presbyterian, and I'm a vegetarian," she quipped.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.