Appearing Sunday on CNN, Hawaii
Representative Tulsi Gabbard said that she has “evolved” on LGBT
rights.
Gabbard, who is seeking the
Democratic nomination for president in 2020, actively opposed LGBT
rights in the late 90s and early 2000s.
When she first sought public office in
Hawaii, Gabbard was opposed to same-sex marriage and touted working
with her father, Mike Gabbard, a leading anti-LGBT activist in
Hawaii. As a state lawmaker, she opposed a 2004 bill that sought to
recognize gay and lesbian couples with civil unions.
“There seems to be a lot of
skepticism among LGBTQ activists that you could go from being so
strongly and vehemently, in their view, against their rights to get
married, etcetera, to the position you have now,” Jake Tapper, host
of State of the Union, said. “How do you convince them that
your conversion is legitimate?”
“I have spoken about my upbringing,
raised in a very socially conservative household with views and
beliefs and things that I no longer hold today,” Gabbard answered.
“Like most of the country, my views have evolved to the point where
now you can look to my record over the last six years in Congress
that reflect what's in my heart and my commitment to fighting for
equality, my commitment to fighting for LGBT rights.”
“I have a 100 percent legislative
voting record with the Human Rights Campaign. I'm a member of the
equality caucus. And again, look forward to continuing to recognize
the work that still must be done towards equality and working to make
that change happen,” she continued.
In Congress, Gabbard has been a strong
supporter of LGBT rights, earning a perfect score in the Human Rights
Campaign's (HRC) latest Congressional Scorecard, a measure of a
lawmaker's support for such rights. She has also apologized for her
past views, most recently in a YouTube video last week.