The Transition

Tulsi Gabbard was born in Leloaloa, America Samoa. She was home schooled for most of her childhood, except for the two years she spent at an all-girls academy in the Philippines. While speaking to a small audience in New Hampshire last month, she admitted that she grew up in a 'conservative household', which was diverse in their views and faith.“I held views growing up that I no longer hold,” she asserted, when questioned on her same-sex marriage views.

In the video apology she recorded on January 17th, Gabbard explained a little more on how growing up with her father influenced her beliefs. “While many Americans may relate to growing up in a conservative home, my story is a little different because my father was very outspoken,” she stated, “He was an activist who was fighting against gay rights and marriage equality in Hawaii—and at that time, I forcefully defended him. 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.”

Her father, Mike Gabbard, was Hawaii's leading opponent of the gay-rights movement. He worked with The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, a political action committee that opposed pro-LGBT lawmakers and laws. The PAC spent more than $100,000 to pass an amendment in 1998 that gave Hawaii the state legislature power to “reserve marriage for opposite sex couples”. The amendment passed.



In an interview with Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Gabbard admitted to working with her father at the age of seventeen in order to pass the amendment. “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,” she said.



In 2000, Gabbard's mother, Carol Gabbard, won a seat on the State Board of Education in 2000. But when gay rights activists opposed her bid, Tulsi attacked them back in a press release from The Alliance of Traditional Marriage. "This war of deception and hatred against my mom is being waged by homosexual activists because they know, that if elected, she will not allow them to force their values down the throats of the children in our schools.” she stated. She was nineteen years old at the time.

Gabbard then ran for state legislature in 2002, becoming a state representative for Hawaii at the age of 21. Gabbard, now, explains that she and her father had entirely separate political lives during her time as a state representative. “He was talking potholes and trash and sewage, and I was talking about education and environment and other issues,” she stated to The New Yorker. But she continued to harbor anti-gay beliefs. In 2004, she stated that “the people of Hawaii...have already made overwhelmingly clear our position on this issue,” and that “As Democrats we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists."

That same year, Gabbard volunteered to deploy for a 12 month tour to Iraq, after having enlisted in the Hawaii National Guard the year before. She served as a medical-operations specialist on a base in the Sunni Triangle. Her time in Iraq was an eye-opening ordeal for her, and she consistently refers to this time when discussing the big shift in her social values. While observing the oppressive regime of the government she was deployed in, she came to her own revelations on the role of a government as a mediator on social issues, and what that could mean in the United States. In December of 2018, she spoke candidly about the change of heart that presided over her during her time in Iraq.

“Both as an American and as a woman, I saw first-hand the destructive effect of having governments who act as moral arbiters for their people. And that caused me to really deeply reflect, and be introspective on the values and beliefs that I had grown up with.”

In a personal essay she wrote in 2011, eight years ago, she explained this soul-searching further. “I realized that a constitutional amendment defining marriage—even the one I and most Hawaii voters had supported—was anathema to the personal freedom we enjoy in America. And so my positions evolved...I can promise Hawai'i that when I get to Washington I will fight any efforts to undermine our reproductive freedom, and I will fight for the repeal of DOMA.”

On January 17th, Gabbard released a video of her apology. It wasn't her first apology to the LGBT community (she had also apologized in 2012 to the Hawaii LGBT caucus), and it may not be her last. “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. That cannot happen, because every single American deserves to be treated equally—by their fellow Americans and under the law... When we deny LGBTQ+ people the basic rights that exist for every American, we are denying their humanity—denying that they are equal. We are also creating a dangerous environment that breeds discrimination and violence... I regret the role I played in causing such pain, and I remain committed to fighting for LGBTQ+ equality.”

Mike Gabbard, Tulsi's father, has also commented on the extreme anti-gay environment his daughter grew up in. “I’d always known that as a child, Tulsi had been deeply affected by the conflict between myself and the gay community. But after seeing her video the other day, what she said broke my heart. I never realized how much trauma I put her through because of my overly aggressive advocacy for traditional marriage.”