Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who announced earlier this month she’s vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, on Thursday sought to clean up the controversy spurred by her past views on the LGBT community by blaming her socially conservative father.
Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, has come under fire for her previous work for an anti-LGBT organization run by her father. The organization, the Alliance for Traditional Marriage, opposed gay marriage and promoted conversion therapy, which is banned in many states.
In a nearly four-minute video posted Thursday to YouTube, Gabbard said her upbringing shaped her previously held views, especially because her father, Hawaii state Sen. Mike Gabbard, was an outspoken conservative activist.
“I also grew up in a socially conservative household,” Gabbard said, “where I was raised to believe that marriage should only be between a man and woman. … While many Americans may be able to relate to growing up in a conservative home, my story’s a little different because my father was very outspoken. He was an activist who was fighting against gay rights and marriage equality in Hawaii. At that time I forcefully defended him and his cause.”
Gabbard said she was not sharing her story “as an excuse,” but rather that she hoped it would inspire others to keep an open mind.
Mike Gabbard didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
As well as his work with the Alliance for Traditional Marriage, Gabbard’s father was also the director of Stop Promoting Homosexuality and served on the steering committees of the National Campaign to Protect Marriage and Save Traditional Marriage, according to CNN. He also hosted an anti-gay radio show called “Let’s Talk Straight Hawaii.”
The congresswoman has substantially shifted her views on the LGBT community since her teenage years working for her father and subsequent election to the Hawaii state legislature in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She was elected to serve in Congress in 2013 and has supported legislation to protect LGBT individuals.
Gabbard has repeatedly apologized for her past comments. While visiting New Hampshire in December, Gabbard cited her deployment during the Iraq War as helping her views evolve.
“The conflict that I saw there, in standing for, believing strongly in, and fighting for these ideals of freedom and liberty that we hold dear in this country,” she said. “It means that equality, that our laws, our government must apply that respect for every single individual. For people who choose to love or marry someone — whether they be of the same gender or not, that respect and that freedom for every woman to be able to make her own choice about her body and her family and her future. So it was a process that I went through that changed my views in many ways and in many big ways to the views that I hold today.”
She again apologized Thursday for her “hurtful” comments.
“I sincerely repeat my apology today,” Gabbard said.
