(CNN) Presidential hopeful Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard sought to explain her shift away from advocating anti-gay policies in the early 2000s on Sunday, saying her time in the military caused her to "go through some soul-searching."

"I was raised in a very socially conservative home. My father is Catholic, he was a leading voice against gay marriage in Hawaii at that time. Again, I was very young, but these are the values and beliefs that I grew up around," Gabbard told CNN's Dana Bash at a town hall in Texas.

CNN's KFile previously reported that in the early 2000s, Gabbard touted working for her father's anti-gay organization, which advocated for controversial conversion therapy and mobilized to pass a measure against same-sex marriage in Hawaii. Gabbard has since apologized and said she regrets her past positions.

Gabbard is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 2020, and her past views and activism in opposition to LGBT rights have come under more intense scrutiny since her presidential announcement.

Gabbard said on Sunday she "personally never supported any kind of conversion therapy. I never advocated for conversion therapy. And frankly, I didn't even know what conversion therapy was until just the last few years."

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