Brody's Notes... Former House Speaker Gingrich: "Gay Marriage A Temporary Aberration"

By Brody Levesque | FORT DODGE, IOWA -- During a campaign question and answer session at a Best Western hotel conference room Friday, former House Speaker and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, in response to a question from the audience regarding same-sex marriage, responded:

“I believe that marriage is between a man and woman,” Gingrich said. “It has been for all of recorded history and I think this is a temporary aberration that will dissipate. I think that it is just fundamentally goes against everything we know.”

According to The Des Moines Register:

One Iowa, a civil rights group, said Gingrich’s statements are offense and disrespectful to thousands of gay and lesbian Iowans who are loved by families who belong to all political parties and play active and productive roles within the state’s communities.

“Mr. Gingrich’s comments are out-of-touch with Iowans and I don’t think that he is the right person to be lecturing Iowans, or anyone, about loving, committed marriages,” said Troy Price of One Iowa.

This is not the first time the former speaker -- who has been married three times -- has made negative statements about the issue of same-sex marriages. In June, according to Reuters, when New York became the sixth state to legalize gay marriage, he spoke out condemning the law saying;

“I think we are drifting towards a terrible muddle which I think is going to be very, very difficult and painful to work our way out of."

Gingrich also linked same-sex marriage to the country's economic troubles in an interview in August.

The Huffington Post reports:

As the race shapes up and is increasingly defined as a two-man showdown between Romney and Perry, Gingrich is showing signs of frustration. He recently snapped at a Los Angeles Times reporter for asking about his fundraising numbers. "You should really go home and think about why you would even ask that today," he said.

A mid-September USA Today/Gallup national poll showed Gingrich with 5 percent of the likely GOP primary vote. That puts him significantly behind Perry, with 31 percent, Romney, with 24 percent, and tied with other third-tier candidates Herman Cain and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.