Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president in 2020, released a video on Thursday in which she apologized for past statements and actions regarding the LGBTQ community. Gabbard said she has evolved and that she was "deeply sorry." Gabbard worked for her father's antigay organization in the early 2000s and opposed a bill legalizing same-sex civil unions as a state legislator in Hawaii in 2004. Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is already facing the first controversy of her 2020 campaign for president, and it comes less than a week after her ambitions of ending up the White House were made public. Gabbard on Thursday released a video apologizing for her past rhetoric and stances toward the LGBTQ community. The Hawaii congresswoman said, "In my past I said and believed things that were wrong, and worse, hurtful to people in the LGBTQ community and their loved ones." "Many years ago, I apologized for my words and, more importantly, for the negative impact that they had. I sincerely repeat my apology today," Gabbard added. "I'm deeply sorry for having said them. My views have changed significantly since then, and my record in Congress over the last 6 years reflects what is in my heart: A strong and ongoing commitment to fighting for LGBTQ rights." Since Gabbard announced she's running for president, her past statements and legislative behavior toward the LGBTQ community have swiftly come back to haunt her as many have expressed doubts about her progressive credentials. Gabbard, in the early 2000s, worked for the Alliance for Traditional Marriage, an antigay organization led by her father. Moreover, as a 22-year-old state legislator in Hawaii in 2004, Gabbard testified against a bill legalizing same-sex civil unions. She decried "homosexual extremists" as she rejected the legislation. "To try to act as if there is a difference between 'civil unions' and same-sex marriage is dishonest, cowardly and extremely disrespectful to the people of Hawaii," Gabbard said at the time. "As Democrats we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists." Read more: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announces she's running for president in 2020 Gabbard addressed this and her father's antigay activism in her statement, and acknowledged there was a time when she "forcefully defended him and his cause." She then added, "But over the years as I grew up, I formed my own opinions based on my life experience that significantly changed my views — at a very personal level in truly having aloha, love, for all people, and making sure that every American, regardless of sexual orientation, is treated equally under the law." Gabbard's stance on LGBTQ rights seems to have evolved over the years, at least from a public and legislative standpoint. Read more: Sen. Mazie Hirono signals she will not endorse fellow Hawaii Democrat Tulsi Gabbard in her bid for president She's apologized for her anti-LGBTQ statements and actions multiple times in the past, including during her run for Congress in 2012. As a congresswoman, Gabbard has often sided with the LGBTQ community. She cosponsored the Equality Act, for example, a bill to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect LGBTQ individuals. Democratic Rep. Sean Maloney, who is openly gay, earlier this week came to Gabbard's defense as she faced criticism over her past. Maloney said those who work against equality "carry that stain and must be held accountable." He then added, "But I also understand how important it is that we encourage people to admit their error, grow, and evolve, as much of the country has done over the last two decades. That is exactly what Tulsi Gabbard has done. She recognized the fault in her past views and the pain she was causing, and she has apologized."<doc-sep>(CNN) — Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard issued a video apology to the LGBTQ community on Thursday, after a CNN report revealing that in the early 2000s she had touted working for her father’s anti-gay organization. “In my past, I said and believed things that were wrong, and worse, they were very hurtful to people in the LGBTQ community and to their loved ones,” said Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat. She continued, “Many years ago, I apologized for my words and more importantly for the negative impact that they had. I sincerely repeat my apology today. I’m deeply sorry for having said them. My views have changed significantly since then.” CNN’s KFile reported earlier this week that Gabbard had told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2002, “Working with my father, Mike Gabbard, and others to pass a constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage, I learned that real leaders are willing to make personal sacrifices for the common good. I will bring that attitude of public service to the Legislature.” Gabbard’s father ran The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, a political action committee aimed at opposing pro-gay lawmakers and legislation that organized and spent more than $100,000 to pass an amendment in 1998 that gave the Hawaii state Legislature the power to “reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.” The amendment to the state’s constitution passed. Following the report, Gabbard issued a statement to CNN saying, “First, let me say I regret the positions I took in the past, and the things I said. I’m grateful for those in the LGBTQ+ community who have shared their aloha with me throughout my personal journey.” She added, “Over the past six years in Congress, I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to help work toward passing legislation that ensures equal rights and protections on LGBTQ+ issues, such as the Equality Act, the repeal of DOMA, Restore Honor to Service Members Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Equality for All Resolution. Much work remains to ensure equality and civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ Americans and if elected President, I will continue to fight for equal rights for all.” CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski contributed to this report.<doc-sep>One week after her 2020 presidential rollout, the campaign of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, has hit a pothole. Gabbard issued an apology Thursday for antigay views she expressed in the past, attributing them to her conservative upbringing. “In my past, I said and believed things that were wrong,” said Gabbard, who represents Hawaii’s second district in the U.S. House of Representatives. “And worse, they were very hurtful to people in the LGBT community and to their loved ones.” Saying she “grew up in a socially conservative household,” Gabbard explained in her video that she was “raised to believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman,” although she said that she has always believed that every person was created equal in God’s eyes. “So, for a period of my life, I didn’t see the contradiction in those beliefs,” Gabbard said, explaining that she was raised by a father, Mike Gabbard, who was a legislator and Catholic activist “fighting against gay rights and marriage equality.” Gabbard gravitated toward Hinduism, her mother’s religion, as a teenager. When she was a teenager, Gabbard also joined her father’s effort to pass a constitutional amendment in Hawaii to ban gay marriage, and when she was elected to Hawaii’s state legislature in 2001, at the age of 21, she continued that fight. In 2012, when Gabbard ran for Congress, she apologized for her antigay advocacy. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, speaks in Ahmadabad, India. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File) Her latest apology comes six days after she announced her presidential candidacy. Gabbard is not well-known nationally, and in a survey conducted in December of liberal activists, she earned only 2 percent support. At a time when Gabbard’s main campaign focus is to raise her profile and introduce herself to voters, the focus on her past could reduce her appeal to voters. A 2018 Gallup poll found that 83 percent of Democrats supported the legalization of gay marriage. “My views have changed significantly since then, and my record in Congress over the last six years reflects what is in my heart,” Gabbard said in her video. Story continues ____ Read more from Yahoo News: See our 2018 year-end features >>><doc-sep>Mr. Gabbard, who has been a state lawmaker since 2006, has been an outspoken anti-gay activist. In addition to the Alliance for Traditional Marriage, he also ran a group called Stop Promoting Homosexuality America and hosted an anti-gay radio show called “Let’s Talk Straight Hawaii,” according to Honolulu Civil Beat, a news organization. Ms. Gabbard alluded to her conservative upbringing and her father’s work on Thursday in her video, but did not go into detail about her own anti-gay advocacy as a young person. She was the youngest person ever elected to the Hawaii State Legislature. According to a 2017 profile in The New Yorker, Ms. Gabbard led a protest in 2004 against a bill to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. That year she also spoke in the State House against a measure to combat anti-gay bullying in schools. She said she objected to students being taught that homosexuality is “normal and natural” and feared that the anti-bullying resolution would mean “inviting homosexual-advocacy organizations into our schools to promote their agenda to our vulnerable youth,” according to The New Yorker. On Thursday night, Mr. Gabbard said all of that was in his daughter’s past. “I’m not sure why there’s all this conversation about Tulsi’s position right now,” he wrote in an email. “Her position changed a long time ago. So, I’m not sure why it’s coming out now.” Indeed, in her video apology Ms. Gabbard said her views had “significantly changed.” “While many Americans may be able to relate to growing up in a conservative home, my story is a little different because my father was very outspoken,” she said. “He was an activist who was fighting against gay rights and marriage equality in Hawaii, and at the time I forcefully defended him and his cause." Ms. Gabbard, an Army National Guard veteran who was twice deployed to the Middle East, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012. She was the first Hindu and the first American Samoan elected to that chamber.<doc-sep>
"I regret the role I played in causing such pain, and I remain committed to fighting for LGBTQ+ equality," Rep. Tulsi Gabbard wrote online. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Politics Tulsi Gabbard apologizes for past anti-LGBT rhetoric Rep. Tulsi Gabbard apologized Thursday for "wrong" and "hurtful" statements she made years ago touting her work for an anti-gay group, saying in a series of posts to Twitter that "my views have changed significantly since then." "I grew up knowing that every person is a child of God, and equally loved by God. I have always believed in the fundamental rights and equality of all people," Gabbard wrote in a flurry of posts that was also accompanied by a video apology. "But I also grew up in a socially conservative household, where I was raised to believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. For a period of my life I didn’t see the contradiction in those beliefs." Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who announced a 2020 presidential bid last Friday, has come under fresh scrutiny in recent weeks after CNN published a story outlining her past remarks. During a 2002 run for the Hawaii state legislature, the Democratic congresswoman touted her work with The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, an organization run by her father that advocated against pro-gay rights lawmakers and in favor of an amendment to the state's constitution banning same-sex marriage. Gabbard's father, Mike Gabbard, advocated against gay rights in Hawaii in the 1990s, telling Honolulu Magazine that homosexuality "not normal, not healthy, morally and scripturally wrong." Tulsi Gabbard said she supported her father's views at the time, and The New Yorker reported that she advocated against legislation in Hawaii to combat anti-gay bullying, saying it would be "inviting homosexual-advocacy organizations into our schools to promote their agenda to our vulnerable youth.” "While many Americans may relate to growing up in a conservative home, my story is a little different because my father was very outspoken. He was an activist who was fighting against gay rights and marriage equality in Hawaii – and at that time, I forcefully defended him," she wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon. "But over the years, I formed my own opinions based on my life experience that changed my views – at a personal level in having aloha, love, for all people, and ensuring that every American, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, is treated equally under the law." Tulsi Gabbard said she has since changed her views and has repeatedly voted in Congress to protect gay rights. She is a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus, and gay rights group the Human Rights Campaign gave her a score of 100 for her voting record. The lawmaker previously apologized for her comments about LGBT issues in 2012 when she was first elected to Congress. But with a 2020 run increasing scrutiny on her past, she renewed her apology on Thursday. "I know that LGBTQ+ people still struggle, are still facing discrimination, are still facing abuse and still fear that their hard-won rights are going to be taken away by people who hold views like I used to," the Hawaii Democrat wrote online. "I regret the role I played in causing such pain, and I remain committed to fighting for LGBTQ+ equality." This article tagged under: Tulsi Gabbard LGBTQ