Candice Gingrich, half-sister of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, spoke Monday at NIU about the importance of voting.

“You’re not just voting for the present, but also for the future,” Gingrich told the audience at the Holmes Student Center.

Gingrich announced her homosexuality in 1987 to her family and friends. She said she currently works at the Human Rights Campaign as their national youth outreach coordinator.

Newt Gingrich served as the house speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives before choosing not to run for re-election in 1999.

Gingrich said she sees her half-brother only during the holidays and they rarely talk about political and social issues. She is currently touring college campuses across the United States encouraging college students to vote.

About 18 to 22 million college-age students are unable to vote in the next election, Gingrich said. She also said those 18 to 22 million are more in-line with progressive issues such as homosexuality, social and civil rights.

“This is peer pressure being used for good,” Gingrich said.

During her national tour, Gingrich said she changed her speech topic to sociopolitical issues when she discovered most of her audience was already registered to vote. Her speech became more of an open discussion with her audience.

Her audience asked questions concerning voting, sexuality and other political issues throughout the lecture.

“She had a very important message that encouraged collegiate people to get involved and participate,” said Margie Cook, coordinator for the LGBT Resource Center.

Gingrich began her lecture talking about how Newt Gingrich and other conservative politicians rose to power in the early 1990s and how they impacted anti-homosexual legislation.

“It was a spark set by the Republican revolution,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich said she hopes to chill that spark by inspiring college voters to come out and voice their opinion with the 2004 presidential election approaching.

“What happened in Florida shows that our individual votes do matter more than ever,” she said.