Gabbard’s 2020 Bid Dredges Up Her Seriously Anti-LGBTQ Past

UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 17: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, holds a news conference with female members of the House Armed Services Committee in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, on a resolution honoring ... UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 17: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, holds a news conference with female members of the House Armed Services Committee in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, on a resolution honoring Army Ranger women graduates. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) MORE LESS
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After Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) announced her intention to seek the Democratic nomination for President on Friday, unsavory details of the extreme anti-LGBTQ stances she used to hold started to surface.

According to a Sunday CNN report, Gabbard closely aligned with her father, Mike, in her earliest political days — he ran the “Alliance for Traditional Marriage,” “Stop Promoting Homosexuality” and hosted an anti-gay radio show called “Let’s Talk Straight Hawaii.”

Gabbard did work for the Alliance, which supported conversion therapy and advocated for a constitutional amendment in Hawaii to withhold marriage from same-sex couples.

Gabbard has apologized for her former beliefs and has come to support pro-LGBTQ legislation like the Equality Act and repeal of DOMA, saying specifically this time that she “regrets” her past positions and is “grateful” to LGBTQ people who have helped her have a change of heart.

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