Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) claimed she did not know "as a young person" that gay conversion therapy existed, despite having worked for her father's organization that promoted it.
"Congresswoman, where are you, and I'm leaving this as general as possible, where are you on gay conversion therapy?" a reporter asked the 2020 presidential candidate after an event in Des Moines, Iowa over the weekend.
"I have supported legislation to ban conversion therapy. There are different questions raised about my upbringing in a very socially conservative family. At that time I had no idea what conversion therapy was, what it meant, or even that it existed. It wasn't something I learned about until much later. I regret the positions and the views that I held at that time that were harmful to people in the LGBTQ community," Gabbard responded.
In a separate interview posted Sunday with progressive media company Status Coup, Gabbard said she "had no idea what conversion therapy was" as "a kid and a young person."
CNN reported in January that "Gabbard in the early 2000s touted working for her father's anti-gay organization, which mobilized to pass a measure against same-sex marriage in Hawaii and promoted controversial conversion therapy."
Gabbard's father, Mike Gabbard, 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 power to 'reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples,'" according to CNN.
Gabbard was 17 when the state voted on the amendment in 1998, and she referenced working for the organization while running for the state legislature at age 21. The organization supported gay conversion therapy and encouraged homosexual individuals to "seek help through the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), 'ex-gay' ministries such as Exodus International, Courage, Homosexuals Anonymous and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (P-FOX)," according to CNN.
In a 2000 press release from the Alliance, Gabbard attacked gay rights activists opposing her mother's bid for the state's board of education.
"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," Gabbard said.
Gabbard apologized for her past anti-LGBT views after the CNN report came out.