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Get Away

A conversation with Candace Gingrich

By SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE
Published June 23, 2005

	A patriotic Pride festival Hillsborough County's vote last week against promoting gay pride events could end up having the exact opposite impact across the bay this weekend, where organizers of the St. Pete Pride festival are bracing to beat last year's 20,000 attendance record.

The liberal wing of the Gingrich family will be in the Tampa Bay spotlight when Candace Gingrich, half sister of former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, serves as grand marshal and keynote speaker at the St. Pete Pride festival on Saturday, a celebration of the gay community and diversity.

Gingrich, 39, says she gets fired up when she sees a large Pride event in a conservative community like the bay area. It started just three years ago, when organizers expected about 1,000 people to show up. Instead, it was 10,000. And last year, the crowd doubled to 20,000.

"Going to a huge pride event like this is an inspiration," Gingrich said in a phone call from her office in Washington, where she is the youth outreach manager for the Human Rights Campaign.

Gingrich was thrust into the national spotlight as a gay activist in the 1990s when Newt Gingrich became speaker of the U.S. House. But she maintains that she wasn't dragged into it. "I leaped."

Her speech on Saturday will focus on the ongoing conversations that she says lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people need to have with friends, family and co-workers.

"The whole idea of coming out isn't a one-time thing, it's everyday conversations about our struggles. "Yes, they are difficult conversations to have, but we've got to talk about it because our friends and family members are the strongest warriors we can have on our team.

"People need to know that they know someone who is gay. It sounds so basic, but it's the reason people who are in the 25-to-35 age group are more comfortable about their sexuality, because it's just been out there more."

[Last modified June 22, 2005, 10:45:07]