Anti-gay NOM congrats Gingrich on SC win

The National Organization for Marriage is congratulating presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on his victory in South Carolina.

NOM, which invests heavily in anti-gay initiatives to block and repeal marriage-equality legislation, celebrated Gingrich as a protector of “traditional marriage.”

“It is now clear that the Republican Party will nominate a candidate who is strongly committed to preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” NOM president Brian Brown wrote on his blog. “We have succeeded in making the preservation of marriage a key issue in this race, and we will continue to do so throughout the primary season, and into the general election against President Obama.”

Gingrich has signed NOM’s pledge advocating a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman and opposing marriage equality at the state level.

Brown did not mention that Gingrich is in a third marriage and that his first two ended in divorce after adulterous affairs. Brown also didn’t address recent claims from Gingrich’s second wife, who said Gingrich asked for either a divorce or an open marriage.

That information hit the news media just days before Gingrich’s win in ultra-conservative South Carolina.

Now Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum are in Florida, where the GOP primary will take place on Jan. 31.

Romney placed second in South Carolina, followed by Santorum and then Ron Paul, who is bypassing Florida.