During her time in Congress, she frequently appeared on Fox News and criticized the Barack Obama administration for refusing to say that the real enemy of the United States is radical Islam or Islamic extremism.[9] During her presidential campaign, she highlighted an opposition to military interventionism,[10][11] although she has contradicted that and called herself a "hawk" on combatting terrorism.[12] Her decision to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and her skepticism of claims that he had used chemical weapons[13][14] gave rise to public disagreement with mainstream Democrats.[15] In March 2020, Gabbard ended her presidential candidacy, and endorsed Joe Biden over her former ally Bernie Sanders.[16]
Gabbard was born on April 12, 1981, in Leloaloa, Maʻopūtasi County, on American Samoa's main island of Tutuila.[28][29] She was the fourth of five children born to Carol (née Porter) Gabbard and Mike Gabbard.[30] In 1983, when Gabbard was two years old, her family moved to Hawaii, where they had lived in the late 1970s.[31][32][33]
Gabbard has both European and Samoan ancestry,[34][35] and was raised in a multicultural household.[36] Her mother was born in Indiana and grew up in Michigan.[37] Her father was born in American Samoa and lived in Hawaii and Florida as a child;[38] he is of Samoan and European ancestry.[36] After moving to Hawaii,[31] Gabbard's mother became interested in Hinduism,[39][40] and gave Hindu names to all her children.[30] Gabbard's given name, "Tulsi" in Sanskrit, is the word for holy basil(Ocimum tenuiflorum), regarded as an earthly manifestation of the goddess Tulsi.[41]
In her early years, Gabbard worked for a number of organizations including Stand Up For America (SUFA), founded by her father in the wake of the September 11 attacks,[54][55][56] and The Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values, an anti-gay marriage political action committee founded to pass an amendment giving the Hawaii state legislature the power to "reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples", in which she was involved from 1998 to as late as 2004.[57][58][59] She also worked as an educator for The Healthy Hawai'i Coalition, which promoted protection of Hawaii's natural environment.[60]
In 2020, after serving with them for 17 years, Gabbard left the Hawaii Army National Guard for a new assignment with California-based Army Reserve unit.[84] On July 4, 2021, Gabbard was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant colonel, while she was deployed to the Horn of Africa working as a Civil Affairs officer in support of a Special Operations mission.[85][86]
In 2002, after redistricting, Gabbard won the four-candidate Democraticprimary for the 42nd district of the Hawaii House of Representatives with a plurality of 43% of the vote. Gabbard then won the general election with 60.7% of the vote, defeating Republican Alfonso Jimenez.[87][88] At the age of 21, Gabbard became the youngest legislator ever elected in Hawaii's history, and was at the time the youngest woman ever elected to a U.S. state legislature.[61][64]
During her term of office, Gabbard successfully led opposition and protests to a state bill that would have legalized same-sex civil unions[89][90] and urged Hawaiians to support the Federal Marriage Amendment to prevent federal law from overriding state law with regard to same-sex marriage.[91]
In 2004, Gabbard filed for reelection but then volunteered for Army National Guard service in Iraq. Rida Cabanilla, who filed to run against her, called on Gabbard to resign because she would not be able to represent her district from Iraq.[92] Gabbard announced in August 2004 that she would not campaign for a second term,[73] and Cabanilla won the Democratic primary with 58% of the vote.[93] State law prevented the removal of Gabbard's name from the ballot.[94]
After returning home from her second deployment to the Middle East in 2009, Gabbard ran for a seat on the Honolulu City Council vacated by City Councilman Rod Tam, of the 6th district, who decided to retire to run for mayor of Honolulu.[95] In the 10-candidate nonpartisan open primary in September 2010, Gabbard finished first with 26.8% of the vote.[96] In the November 2 runoff election she defeated Sesnita Moepono with 49.5% of the vote.[97]
Gabbard introduced a measure to help food truck vendors by loosening parking restrictions.[98] She also introduced Bill 54, a measure that authorized city workers to confiscate personal belongings stored on public property with 24 hours notice to its owner.[99][100] After overcoming opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)[101] and Occupy Hawai'i,[102] Bill 54 passed and became City Ordinance 1129.
United States House of Representatives (2013–2021)
In early 2011, Mazie Hirono, the incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district, announced that she would run for the United States Senate. In May 2011, Gabbard announced her candidacy for Hirono's House seat.[103] The Democratic Mayor of Honolulu, Mufi Hannemann, was the best-known candidate in the six-way primary, but Gabbard won with 62,882 votes (55%); the Honolulu Star-Advertiser called her win an "improbable rise from a distant underdog to victory".[104] After winning the primary, Gabbard resigned from the City Council on August 16 "in order to focus on her congressional campaign"[105] and to prevent the cost of holding a special election.[106][107]
In December 2012, Gabbard applied to be considered for appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Daniel Inouye.[115] Despite support from some prominent mainland Democrats,[116][117] she was not on the list of three candidates which the Democratic Party of Hawaii sent to the governor.[118]
In March 2013, Gabbard introduced the Helping Heroes Fly Act, which sought to improve airport security screenings for severely wounded veterans. It passed Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama.[119][120][121] She also introduced the House version of the Military Justice Improvement Act.[122][123][124]
Gabbard was reelected on November 8, 2014, defeating Crowley again, by 142,010 to 33,630 votes (78.7%–18.6%); Libertarian candidate Joe Kent garnered 4,693 votes (2.6%).[125]
Gabbard also introduced Talia's Law which sought to prevent child abuse and neglect on military bases. It was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in December 2016.[129][130][131]
Gabbard was reelected on November 8, 2016, defeating Republican nominee Angela Kaaihue by 170,848 to 39,668 votes (81.2%–18.8%).[132]
In 2017, Gabbard introduced the Off Fossil Fuels (OFF) Act, which sought to "justly transition away from fossil fuel sources of energy to 100% clean energy by 2035, and for other purposes".[133][134]
In 2018, Gabbard introduced the Securing America's Election Act, a bill that would require all districts to use paper ballots, which would yield an auditable paper trail in the event of a recount. Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group, endorsed the bill.[135]
Gabbard was reelected in November 2018,[136] defeating Republican nominee Brian Evans by 153,271 to 44,850 votes (77.4%–22.6%).
In September 2018, Gabbard and Representative Walter Jones (R-N.C.) co-sponsored the No More Presidential Wars Act, an effort to "reclaim the responsibility Congress has to be the body that declares war, to end these presidential wars that are being fought without the authorization of Congress".[137]
On October 25, 2019, Gabbard announced that she would not seek reelection to the House in 2020, citing her presidential campaign.[138][139] Hawaii State Senator Kai Kahele had been challenging her for the congressional seat. Kahele and the co-chair of his campaign, former Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie,[140] criticized her for missing votes while campaigning for president—especially the vote on Syria; however, her absences were similar to other members of Congress running for president.[141][142]
In October 2020, Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz introduced a bill calling for the United States to drop criminal charges against Edward Snowden.[143] She introduced a similar bill, with Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie, aimed at ensuring the release of Julian Assange from prison in the United Kingdom where he was being held pending resolution of extradition proceedings to the United States.[144]
On January 22, 2013, Gabbard was unanimously elected to a four-year term as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.[154] In September 2015, she criticized chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's decision to hold only six debates during the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, compared with 26 in 2008 and 15 in 2004,[155][156] and to exclude any candidate who participated in a non-DNC sanctioned debate from all future DNC-sanctioned debates. Gabbard released a statement about the heated and public disagreements surrounding the debates in a Facebook post in 2015.[157][158]
Following her public criticisms of the debate process, Gabbard was reported to have been either "disinvited" or asked to "consider not coming" to the October 13, 2015, Democratic debate in Las Vegas.[159][160] In an interview with The New York Times, she spoke of an unhealthy atmosphere, saying, "no one told me I would be relinquishing my freedom of speech and checking it at the door" in taking the job.[161] Gabbard privately wrote to Wasserman Schultz, accusing her of violating the DNC's duty of neutrality by favoring Hillary Clinton.[162][163]
Gabbard resigned as DNC vice chair on February 28, 2016, to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination for President of the United States.[164][165] On that same day, she appeared on Meet the Press and discussed why she was stepping down.[166] She was the first congresswoman to endorse Sanders,[165] and later gave the nominating speech putting his name forward at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.[167]
Gabbard was assigned as Bernie Sanders' running mate in California for any write-in votes for him.[170] Shortly after the election, she was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for 2020.[171][172] In the 2016 United States presidential election, a Minnesota elector voted for Gabbard for vice president, but had that vote invalidated and given to Tim Kaine.[173]
In February 2019, Gabbard officially launched her 2020 presidential campaign.[1] Gabbard was the first female combat veteran to run for president.[174]CNN described her foreign policy platform as anti-interventionist and her economic platform as populist.[1]
Gabbard did not meet the polling threshold for the third presidential debate, prompting her to criticize the DNC's qualification criteria as not transparent.[178] She did qualify for the fourth debate in Ohio in October 2019,[179] but accused the media and the Democratic party of "rigging" the 2020 election, and briefly threatened to boycott the debate[180][181] before deciding to participate.[182] She skipped the LULAC Latino Town Hall to appear on Hannity's TV show, where she criticized the Democrats' impeachment process.[183]
In July 2019, Gabbard was the only 2020 presidential candidate to visit Puerto Rico and join protests urging Governor Ricardo Rosselló to resign.[184][185]
In October 2019, false and later corrected stories[186] claimed that former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said that Russia was "grooming" a female Democrat to run as a third-party candidate, who would help President Donald Trump win reelection via a spoiler effect.[187][188] The media understood Clinton to be referring to Gabbard, which Nick Merril, a Clinton spokesperson, seemed to confirm to CNN by saying: "If the nesting doll fits"; however, Gabbard repeatedly said she would not run as a third-party candidate in 2020 and did not do so.[188][189][190] Gabbard was defended by fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, who rejected Clinton's suggestion that Gabbard was a Russian asset.[191][192][193] Trump also defended Gabbard.[194][195] Gabbard filed a defamation lawsuit against Clinton in January 2020,[196] but dropped it five months later with her lawyers stating the legal merit was valid but living in a "post-Covid world" they could better focus their attention elsewhere.[197] To represent her in her lawsuit against Clinton, Gabbard retained two attorneys with the Los Angeles law firm Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht and Davidoff Hutcher & Citron which, during the Muellerprobe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, also had represented George Papadopoulos and Rudy Giuliani.[198]
On March 3, 2020, Gabbard, who is of Samoan descent earned two delegates in American Samoa,[200] making her the second woman of color (after Shirley Chisholm) and the first Asian-American and Pacific-Islander presidential candidate to earn primary delegates.[201] She was also the only non-white Democratic party candidate to earn delegates in the 2020 election cycle.[202]
On March 19, 2020, Gabbard dropped out of the 2020 election and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.[203][204][205]
In May 2020, Gabbard gave her sole 2020 down-ballot endorsement to Democratic candidate Isaac Wilson, who was running for election to the 63rd district of the South Carolina House of Representatives against incumbent Republican Rep. Jay Jordan.[206] Wilson later lost in the general election, earning 35.3% to Jordan's 64.7%.[207]
In June 2020, Gabbard donated about $4,400 to Direct Relief and the Semper Fi & America's Fund, fundraised using proceeds from sales of excess merchandise in April and May.[208] As Gabbard had already suspended her campaign back in March, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) sent a letter notifying that the fundraising efforts were not permitted and that her campaign ought to refund all primary election contributions made after her campaign suspension.[208]
In July 2020, the family of Vanessa Guillén, a U.S. Army soldier and victim of military sexual harassment who was found murdered after previously being reported missing, and their attorney Natalie Khawam met with Gabbard.[209] She later spoke at their July 1 news conference, where she said that as a fellow service member in the U.S. Army, she was "stand[ing] here for Vanessa", "for her family", and "for every service member who has experienced sexual harassment or assault and did not feel safe reporting it out of fear of retaliation".[210]
In August 2020, Gabbard was a panelist on "Electability" during The 19th Represents Virtual Summit on the same day as Hillary Clinton but on a different panel.[211] She spoke on the pre-recording, albeit not in the live recording made after Kamala Harris was announced as Joe Biden's running mate.[212]
Later that same month, Gabbard and Dr. Scott Miscovich held a press conference lauding Dr. Jennifer Smith, the state's epidemiological specialist who blew the whistle regarding the Hawaii Department of Health's lack of contact tracers to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.[213] Gabbard called for the Hawaii DOH Director Bruce Anderson and state epidemiologist Sarah Park to step down[214] and alleged that Hawaii GovernorDavid Ige is partly to blame.[215] In the aftermath, Anderson retired from his position,[216] whereas Park was later replaced and put on leave.[217] However, Smith was also put on paid leave and Gabbard responded, saying that the action "further erodes the public trust" and that it "sends a dangerously chilling message to others in our government who are doing the right thing, that they better toe the line or they will be punished".[216] On November 2, 2020, Smith returned to work from her paid leave.[218] On February 1, 2021, Park left the Hawaii Department of Health.[217]
Gabbard was a presenter at iHeartRadio Honolulu's virtual festival, Island Music Awards, and announced the winner of the "Female Artist of the Year" award.[219]
In September 2020, Gabbard filed paperwork with the FEC to change her presidential campaign committee, Tulsi Now, into Tulsi Aloha, a leadership PAC, as well as a legal expense trust fund to pay off debts from the lawsuit against Clinton.[208] Later that same month, she weighed into the public disagreement surrounding the Netflix film Cuties, alleging that Netflix was "complicit" in "help[ing] fuel the child sex trafficking trade".[220]
In January 2021, Gabbard launched her own podcast: This is Tulsi Gabbard.[222] She has also made several appearances on Fox News programs since leaving Congress where she criticized figures such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, calling the latter a "domestic terrorist" for what she deemed as his attempt to "undermin[e] our constitution by trying to take away our civil liberties and rights" in the aftermath of the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.[223][224]
On October 11, 2022, Gabbard announced on Twitter that she was leaving the Democratic Party, accusing its leadership of "cowardly wokeness, anti-white racism, (being) hostile to people of faith and spirituality, and dragging us closer to nuclear war".[21] Shortly thereafter, Gabbard endorsed and campaigned for several Donald Trump-endorsed Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.[22] Among the candidates were Senate candidates Don Bolduc, Adam Laxalt and JD Vance, and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.[229]
In November 2022, it was announced that Gabbard had signed a deal with Fox News as a paid contributor after years of being a frequent guest on several of their programs. She serves as a frequent guest and occasional host on shows such as The Five, Outnumbered,Hannity, Jesse Watters Primetime, Gutfeld! and more.[20] Gabbard also served as a frequent guest host of Tucker Carlson Tonight until its cancellation in 2023.
Following Trump's entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary, commentators suggested that Gabbard may be considered by Trump as a potential vice presidential running mate.[230][231][232][233]Greg Gutfeld, the host of Gutfeld! on Fox News, predicted that Gabbard would be chosen as Trump's running mate.[234] On February 22, 2024, she was a featured speaker at CPAC, raising speculation of her candidacy as a potential vice presidential selection.[235] During a Fox & Friends interview on March 6, 2024, Gabbard was directly asked about serving as Trump's vice-president. She responded, "I would be honored to serve our country in that way and be in a position to help President Trump..."[236] In March 2024, Gabbard was cited by Trump as one of his potential choices for his vice presidential running mate.[237] On August 26, 2024, Gabbard officially endorsed former President Trump's re-election bid, during a National Guard Association gathering in Michigan.[238][239] On August 27, 2024, Gabbard was named as an honorary co-chair of Donald Trump's presidential transition team, alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., joining the former president's sons and the Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.[240][241]
Gabbard criticizes what she describes as a push by the "neoliberal/neoconservative war machine" for U.S. involvement in "counterproductive, wasteful foreign wars", saying they have not made the United States any safer[242] and have started a New Cold War and nuclear arms race.[243] She describes herself as a hawk “[w]hen it comes to the war against terrorists,” but "when it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I'm a dove."[244]
Gabbard's domestic policy platform in her 2020 presidential campaign was economically and socially progressive.[245][246][247] After the presidential campaign, she agreed with Republicans on some cultural and social issues.[17]
In June 2020, Gabbard introduced an amendment to the House version of the 2021 NDAA to allow members of Armed Services to use products containing CBD and other hemp derivatives.[252] It was approved 336 to 71 as a package, although House leaders did not fight for its inclusion in the final bill.[253]
Gabbard along with 47 other Democrats expressed support for increased border security and voted with Republicans for vetting of Iraqi and Syrian refugees.[255] Gabbard also called for halting the visa waiver program after mass numbers of Syrian immigrants entered Germany, until the threat of terrorist attacks was resolved.[256] However Gabbard has also expressed support for an easier path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, increasing skilled immigration, and granting work visas to immigrants.[257] She said she would be open to a proposal for a border wall if experts say it is warranted.[258]
Gabbard has often supported the causes of Native Americans and tribal lands, such as her support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the construction of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016,[259] wherein she co-signed a letter requesting the Obama administration to address the tribal concerns about the project.[260] Gabbard successfully passed an amendment to the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would require the Department of Energy to reexamine the safety of the Runit Dome, a leaking Cold War era nuclear waste site in the Marshall Islands.[261] She later called for "fresh eyes" to ensure a more independent assessment of the waste site's safety.[261]
Gabbard has spoken in favor of a Green New Deal but expressed concerns about vagueness in some proposed versions of the legislation[262] and its inclusion of nuclear energy.[263] She advocates her own "Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act" ("OFF Act") as legislation to transition the United States to renewable energy.[264][265]
Gabbard has generally called for reducing military interventionism by the United States,[10] though she has supported strong action on terrorism, especially against Islamic terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, ISIS and Hamas.[12][266]
During her time in Congress, Gabbard took a strong stand against Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, often noting her experience as a veteran in Iraq.[9] She also criticized the Obama administration, in some of her appearances on the Fox News network between 2013 and 2017, for "refusing" to say that the "real enemy" of the United States is "radical Islam" or "Islamic extremism".[9]
On January 18, 2017, Gabbard went on a one-week "fact-finding mission" to Syria and Lebanon, during which Gabbard met various political and religious leaders from Syria and Lebanon—as well as regular citizens from both sides of the war—and also had two unplanned meetings with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.[267][268][269][270] In April 2017, Gabbard expressed skepticism about claims that Assad used chemical weapons against civilians in Khan Shaykhun, and which were followed by a military attack against Syria by the United States. Gabbard said, "a successful prosecution of Assad (at the International Criminal Court) w[ould] require collection of evidence from the scene of the incident", and that she "support[ed] the United Nations' efforts in this regard".[13][14][271][272] In a 2018 interview with The Nation, Gabbard said the United States had "been waging a regime change war in Syria since 2011".[273] After getting scrutiny for her views on Assad, Gabbard called Assad "a brutal dictator. Just like Saddam Hussein".[274]
Gabbard has often expressed her support for the ArmenianChristian population[282] in the conflict with Azerbaijan.[283] In 2017, Gabbard was part of a team of US lawmakers that visited Armenia, including the disputed, breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is also claimed by Azerbaijan; and thus faced criticism by Azerbaijan.[284] Later, she accused Turkey of encouraging and inciting 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, and co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concern over Azerbaijan's renewed aggression against Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and possible conflict with Armenia.[283] Gabbard stated:
The United States must urge Azerbaijan to immediately end their attacks, and Turkey to cease its involvement both directly through the use of its armed forces, and indirectly by sending Al-Qaeda associated proxies to wipe out Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian population —a tactic Turkey used against Syrian Kurds.[285]
In 2019, Gabbard was a co-sponsor of the Armenian Genocide Resolution legislation, along with several other US Senators and US Representatives, to lock in official US recognition and permanent remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.[286] While talking about the 1915 mass killings, Gabbard said, "the Ottoman Empire was attempting to cleanse itself of the Armenian and Christian populations, and the US became home to many survivors".[282] Eventually, in 2021, in spite of opposition by Turkey, President Joe Biden recognized the Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians as a genocide.[287]
In 2022, she claimed that NATO and the Biden administration not taking the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO off the table may be one of the factors provoking the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[288][289] She also argued against economic sanctions on Russia on the basis that Americans would suffer from higher oil and gas prices.[288] Gabbard stated that “the Washington power elite” is trying to turn Ukraine into another Afghanistan.[290] In March 2022, she said media freedom in Russia is "not so different" from that in the United States. PolitiFact described her claim as false, noting that in Russia the government represses independent media and free speech, including imprisoning critics of the invasion of Ukraine.[291]
In February 2024, Trump met with Gabbard, who has been an outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine, to discuss the future of US foreign policy in case of his re-election.[292]
Gabbard supports a national healthcare insurance program that covers uninsured, as well as under-insured people,[293] and allows supplemental but not duplicative private insurance.[265] She has since advocated for a two-tieruniversal health care plan that she calls "Single Payer Plus", loosely modeled after Australia's system and allowing for both supplementary and duplicative private insurance.[294][295]
Gabbard has previously pushed to reinstate Medicaid eligibility for people from the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau who are working and living in the United States.[261] She has called for addressing the national nursing shortage[296] and supports clear GMO labeling,[297][298] voting in 2016 against a GMO-labeling bill she said was too weak.[299]
Gabbard voted "present" when the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump in December 2019. In two video messages[300][301] and a press release, she cited The Federalist Papers essay No. 65,[302] and described her vote as a protest against "a political zero-sum game".[303][304] Gabbard introduced H. Res. 766,[305][306] which would censureTrump for several of his foreign policy decisions and "send a strong message to this president and future presidents that their abuses of power will not go unchecked, while leaving the question of removing Trump from office to the voters to decide".[307] A week later, Gabbard said she had serious concerns that the impeachment would increase the likelihood that her party would lose the presidential election and its majority in the House of Representatives.[308]
In 1998, then-teenage Gabbard supported her father's successful campaign to amend the Constitution of Hawaii to give lawmakers the power to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.[59][309] The "Alliance for Traditional Marriage" spent more than $100,000 opposing same-sex marriage.[59] In her campaign for the Hawaii legislature in 2002, when asked "What qualifies you to be a state representative?", Gabbard responded "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."[310] CNN, in a 2019 review of Gabbard's early career, said this showed "how closely she aligned herself with her father's mission at the time".[59]
In 2004, the then-22-year-old Gabbard led a protest outside the Hawaii House Judiciary Committee objecting to the committee's decision to hold a hearing on a bill to establish legal parity between same-sex couples in civil unions and married straight couples after voters had, in 1998, approved the constitutional amendment not to support gay marriage by a margin of more than 2-to-1.[311] In public testimony, she said: "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 who have already made overwhelmingly clear our position on this issue, … As Democrats, we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists."[312]
That same year, she asserted that existing harassment figures showed Hawaii's schools were "not rampant with anti-gay harassment" and opposed a planned study that asked students about their sexuality.[63][313]
In 2012, Gabbard apologized for her "anti-gay advocacy"[314] and said she would "fight for the repeal" of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).[315] In June 2013, she was an initial cosponsor of the legislation to repeal DOMA.[316]
Gabbard was a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus.[317] She received ratings of 92%, 88%, 100%, and 84% for her four congressional terms for pro-LGBT legislation from the Human Rights Campaign, a group that advocates for LGBT rights.[318]
During a 2016 interview, Gabbard said that while her opinions on gay rights as a policy had changed, her personal views on gay people had not.[319] After launching her presidential campaign in 2019, she apologized again[314] and said that her views had been changed by her experience in the military "with LGBTQ service members, both here at home and while deployed".[7][320] After criticism from Democrats over her past anti-gay remarks, she was defended by conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, journalist Glenn Greenwald, and openly gay representative Sean Patrick Maloney.[321][322]
On December 10, 2020, Gabbard and Republican U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin introduced a bill titled the "Protect Women's Sports Act" that would seek to define Title IX protections on the basis of an individual's biological sex, making it a violation for institutions that receive federal funding to "permit a person whose biological sex at birth is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls". If passed, this bill would effectively ban many transgender athletes from participating in programs corresponding with their gender identity.[323][324][325] After introducing the bill, Gabbard was condemned by activists and LGBT organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, which said: "Gabbard has lost all credibility as an ally."[326]
On April 4, 2022, Gabbard endorsed Florida's Parental Rights Bill which forbids discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public school classrooms for kindergarten through third grade. Gabbard stated the bill "bans government and government schools from indoctrinating woke sexual values in our schools to a captive audience". She also suggested the bill should apply to all grades.[327][328]
After moving to Washington DC, Gabbard lived across the Anacostia River with her sister, Vrindavan, a US Marshal.[31] She has worked on several efforts for military veterans, and also noted being inspired by former President Kennedy.[337] Among other activities in D.C., Gabbard has been participating in the celebration of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, along with members from the Indian-American community.[338] In 2016, she supported the campaign by Hindu-Americans[339] for a Diwali commemorative stamp in the United States, noting that the Diwali festival honors values such as righteousness "that transcend different religions, and backgrounds.”[340]
Earlier in Hawaii, she was briefly associated with Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a Vaishnava Hindu and Bhakti Yoga affiliated organization.[341][48][342] She described that SIF's leader, Mr. Butler, was like a guide and "essentially like a Vaishnava Hindu pastor" during her early years.[47] Gabbard has often mentioned that the teachings of selfless action from the Gita,[333] motivated her towards social work.[40] Later in 2014, as a Congresswoman, she also presented a copy of Gita to India's Prime Minister Modi, on the latter's visit to the United States.[343] Gabbard supported the efforts of PM Modi for declaration of an International Yoga Day by the United Nations.[344][331]
At the age of 21, in 2002, Gabbard married Eduardo Tamayo.[345][346] She was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005, serving with the National Guard. Gabbard was divorced in 2006, citing "the stresses war places on military spouses and families" as a reason for the divorce.[347] In 2015, Gabbard married freelance cinematographer and editor Abraham Williams, the son of her Honolulu office manager, in a traditional Vedic wedding ceremony.[348][349] While on Meghan McCain's podcast in 2024, Gabbard mentioned that she and Williams had tried to start a family and had undergone several in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, without success.[350]
Having grown up in Hawaii, Gabbard has noted her lifelong appreciation for the Hawaiian culture and its Aloha spirit, which broadly refers to values such as peace, compassion, and pleasantness.[351][352] She often greets others with the Aloha salutation, describing it as "I come to you with respect and with love."[353]
On September 30, 2018, Gabbard received the Ho'ola Na Pua Advocacy Award for "her dedication to serving and empowering human trafficking survivors in Hawaii" at their annual Pearl Gala.[357] On October 16, 2018, Gabbard was honored as Hawai'i Pacific University's 2018 Paul T. C. Loo Distinguished Alumni.[358]
^ abcMendoza, Jim (February 1, 2013). "The Gabbards: Raising Hawaii's next political star (Part 1)". Hawaii News Now. Archived from the original on April 16, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2016. Carol believes in the Hindu faith. Their children have Hindu names: Bhakti, Jai, Aryan, Tulsi and Vrindavan. Tulsi settled on Hindusim as a teenager
^"Carol Porter engaged to G. Michael Gabbard". Playground Daily News. August 15, 1968. p. 15.
^"Who is Tulsi Gabbard?". Pacific Edge Magazine. February 21, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2022. She's been a practicing Hindu since her teenage years, following in the footsteps of her mother, Carol Porter Gabbard, also a practicing Hindu
^Christensen, John (November 23, 1982). "Chris Butler: About this guru business". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. p. B-1.
^ abBowles, Nellie (August 2, 2019). "Tulsi Gabbard Thinks We're Doomed". The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2019. She was raised in part on the teachings of the guru Mr. Butler....'he's essentially like a Vaishnava Hindu pastor'
^"Bachelor of Science in Business Administration". Hawaii Pacific University. Retrieved December 8, 2019. "The Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program at HPU allows students a choice among nine concentrations: ... International Business." "SUCCESS COMES NATURALLY TO HPU BSBA ALUMNI, INCLUDING: ... Tulsi Gabbard, '09, US Congress-woman"
^"Who is Tulsi Gabbard?". WUSA9. January 16, 2019. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2019. "Education: Hawaii Pacific University (Bachelor's degree in business administration)"
^Dunford, Bruce (May 18, 2004). "State lawmaker urges federal amendment to thwart gay weddings". Hawaii Tribune-Herald. p. B3. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Homosexuals married in Massachusetts will soon come to Hawaii and challenge the 1998 decision by Hawaii's people to ban same-sex marriages. It is highly likely that federal judges will soon be tearing apart our U.S. Constitution in order to force same-sex marriage down the throats of the people of Hawaii and America.
^Johnson, Martin (October 19, 2019). "Yang defends Gabbard: She 'deserves much more respect'". The Hill. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Tulsi Gabbard deserves much more respect and thanks than this. She literally just got back from serving our country abroad.
^"Democrats Shouldn't Be Trying to Banish Tulsi Gabbard". The Nation. ISSN0027-8378. Archived from the original on December 29, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2019. A successful prosecution of Assad (at the International Criminal Court) will require collection of evidence from the scene of the incident, and I support the United Nation's efforts in this regard. Without such evidence, a successful prosecution is impossible.
^Choi, Matthew. "Tulsi Gabbard apologizes for past anti-LGBT rhetoric". POLITICO. Retrieved January 17, 2019. The lawmaker previously apologized for her comments about LGBT issues in 2012 when she was first elected to Congress.