The so-called Human Rights Campaign claims to be the nation's "largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality." In reality, it's a partisan smear shop that slimes Republicans and does the Democratic Establishment's bidding.

Kudos to Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for being the only 2020 Democrat to ignore HRC's candidate survey on gay and transgender issues. She deserves credit for refusing to legitimize the awful group and play identity politics.

The HRC has treated Gabbard unfairly since Day One of her campaign. Yes, she has a history of strongly opposing gay rights in hurtful terms, but the Hawaii congresswoman has apologized profusely for that past and now champions the rights and freedoms of all. Still, HRC spokeswoman Charlotte Clymer has repeatedly, publicly accused Gabbard of being a Russian asset, supporting treason, secretly being a Republican, and not caring about humanity.

Tulsi Gabbard ignores LGBTQ survey questions from Human Rights Campaign https://t.co/jVHekzCWm2 — Washington Blade (@WashBlade) February 25, 2020

"Seven current candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination were the among the respondents to an LGBTQ survey the nation’s leading LGBTQ group unveiled on Monday, but Tulsi Gabbard — who has been criticized for having an anti-LGBTQ past — wasn’t among them," the Washington Blade reported. "The lack of response from Gabbard sticks out, especially because she faced heavy criticism during the start of her presidential campaign for her opposition to LGBTQ rights as a Hawaii state legislator."

Why exactly would Gabbard work with an organization that smears her? And it's not even a serious gay rights survey. It has questions about gun control, immigration policy, and voting policies. If you don't favor the HRC's preferred policy on these unrelated issues, you are an evil bigot in their estimation, sadly.

If you needed any more evidence that the HRC's presidential candidate survey is just another partisan stunt, consider that the organization only sent it to Democrats. As an open supporter of gay marriage and the most pro-gay Republican president ever, President Trump's reelection campaign still wasn't even invited to answer HRC's survey.

Critics will likely attack Gabbard's decision to ignore the survey as evidence that she secretly still harbors anti-gay beliefs — or something to that effect. Much more likely is that she simply deplores the Democratic Establishment and its shameless partisan proxies at the HRC.