title: Hank Henshaw

text: Rather than being destroyed, the Cyborg is transported (unknowingly by another villain, Thanos) to a Marvel Multiverse dimension designated as 616, as seen at the beginning of the "Green Lantern/Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances" crossover one-shot issue. The Cyborg destroys a planet in another attempt to recreate Warworld, attracting the attention of the Silver Surfer. Their short battle is interrupted by the arrival of Parallax, who has been tracking the Cyborg for some time, seeking vengeance for the destruction of Coast City. In the confusion, Henshaw escapes and is returned to the DC Universe. Parallax undoes the destruction of the planet that Henshaw had caused using power donated from the Silver Surfer.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: The Cyborg encounters Hal Jordan again at the Source Wall, a nexus of statues that channels vital energy to preserve the Fourth World. Parallax uses his powers to generate representations of the victims of Coast City, which tear the Cyborg's body apart. Jordan then disperses Henshaw's consciousness, and the Cyborg is seemingly destroyed once again.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: During a crisis involving the Godwave, Superman (wearing his blue energy costume at the time) travels to New Genesis and encounters Henshaw again. Henshaw has taken part of the Source Wall's structure and crafted a small world made up of his memories, which he uses to taunt Superman before being defeated again. Unknown to Superman, the Cyborg stored his own consciousness in Superman's high-tech containment suit. After Superman returns to Earth, Henshaw escapes and constructs a new body, this time posing as an art teacher at a high school in an attempt to start over. He is a popular teacher and befriends the blind Ashbury Armstrong (daughter of Dirk Armstrong), but ultimately his rage towards Superman causes him to reveal his true identity and his new body is lost in a fight with Superman. To escape detection, Henshaw stores his consciousness in a clay statue. This statue is later stolen by the Toyman and the two villains join forces to kill Superman. To this end, the Cyborg designs a machine that will break Superman's energy form down into multiple components and beam them to different points in the galaxy, preventing Superman from reforming. A malfunction in the machine causes Superman to split into Superman Blue and Superman Red, the latter of whom eventually defeats and recaptures the Cyborg.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: The Cyborg later attempts to take over Kandor, but fails when he is defeated by Superman and sent to the Phantom Zone. Shortly after the "Superman Y2K" story, Henshaw escapes the Zone and attacks Superman, who was suffering from Kryptonite poisoning. Henshaw is defeated with the help of the Kandorians and sent back to the Phantom Zone, swearing revenge, but he is not encountered on subsequent visits to the Zone.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Henshaw returns in a form similar to his original body, when he is revealed to be the Manhunters' new Grandmaster. With his influence, the Manhunters have been upgraded with organic material, most notably with blood. On the Manhunter home world of Biot, in sector 3601, Henshaw is holding captive several assumed-to-be-dead Green Lanterns, most of whom appeared to die during the "Emerald Twilight" saga.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Henshaw has also used Kryptonian technology to upgrade the Manhunters. During the "Green Lantern" story arc "No Fear", Kryptonian robots are seen servicing the Manhunters. Henshaw, the Grandmaster, allowed the Green Lantern Corps to rebuild for unspecified reasons as a part of his master plan. While Henshaw explains that he first encountered the Manhunters around the time he was imprisoned in the Source Wall by Parallax, it has yet to be revealed how the Cyborg was able to escape the Phantom Zone and take control of Biot. Henshaw is defeated when Biot explodes, destroying most of his body aside from his head.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Henshaw's head is then brought by a Guardian back to Oa so that they can learn of how he was able to take control of Biot, what he has learned from the Manhunters and to learn about "the 52" (referring to the 51 alternate Earths created during the second Crisis as well as their own reality). It is also revealed that the Cyborg knows of the 52, though exactly how he came by this knowledge is not made completely clear. It is stated that he has explored "The Bleed"; the space between dimensions, which could have occurred either when he was imprisoned there, when he was imprisoned in the Source Wall, or in his past exploration of the Marvel Universe.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Henshaw's head is taken by the Sinestro Corps after their invasion of Oa to Qward. Henshaw is later seen as a herald of the newly returned Anti-Monitor. He reconstructs his cyborg body and replaces the S-symbol on his chest with the symbol of the Sinestro Corps. He now wields ten Qwardian power rings. It is revealed that Henshaw has joined the Sinestro Corps so that the Anti-Monitor can later kill him and allow him to rest in peace.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Henshaw was the focus of the "Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Cyborg Superman" one-shot that was released on October 3, 2007. In this book, Henshaw and his Manhunters head to Earth to assist the Sinestro Corps in their attack. En route, Henshaw stops leading the Manhunters which continue to their preprogrammed destinations. As he watches them go, he remembers everything that has happened to him, from their dreadful shuttle accident to his wife's suicide when she sees him in his robot form. He finishes this journey down memory lane by going to his wife's grave. He digs her corpse out and rips it into two, shouting that all he wants is not to be with her, but for these memories to fade.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Meanwhile, the Manhunters begin an assault on the JLA satellite. Hawkgirl, Black Lightning, and Red Arrow retaliate; however, all three are neutralized when Henshaw assists in the attack and he successfully tampers with the mechanics of the satellite core. As the satellite is thrown out of orbit, Superman appears and engages Henshaw in battle. Their fight continues on Earth, while Sinestro transports his crew and his ship from the anti-matter universe. At first Superman seems to have the upper hand; however after two punches, Henshaw strikes with great power and rage, punching him through the Statue of Liberty. By the end, Henshaw has Superman in a choke hold, thinking that the victory is near.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: He is later seen briefly in "Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Superman-Prime", having presumably been beaten back by the combined strength of Superman, Supergirl, and Power Girl.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: When the Green Lantern Corps decide to detonate New Warworld and the central power battery of the Sinestro Corps to destroy the Anti-Monitor, Henshaw allows himself to be trapped behind a shield and exposed to the massive explosion. Before he is destroyed, however, he thanks the Green Lantern Corps.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Most of Henshaw's body survived the explosion, but it took further damage when Superman-Prime hurled the Anti-Monitor into space. The upper part of his skull was retrieved by the android Manhunters. Unable to detect any life signs and confused without his leadership, the Manhunters reanimated the brain of the Cyborg Superman. He shed a tear when he realized he was still alive.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: In the "Brightest Day" crossover, Henshaw would eventually return and work with the Alpha Lanterns as they attempted to augment every Green Lantern, including Ganthet, into an Alpha. This was apparently at the suggestion of the robed figure holding Ion and Parallax, who told him that Ganthet held the knowledge to destroy him permanently, after Henshaw's attempts to provoke Nekron into killing him during the "Blackest Night" failed because he lacked a heart to attract Nekron's interest. By threatening to make the Alpha Lanterns kill themselves if Ganthet does not cooperate, Henshaw forces Ganthet to work on reversing the augments that turned the Green Lanterns into Alpha Lanterns, hoping that he can use the resulting information to restore his original mortal body.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Henshaw is seemingly killed when his lifeforce was finally separated from his nearly indestructible body by the combined full powered blasts of several Lanterns and Ganthet, and appeared on the mental plane of Alpha-Lantern Boodikka in an attempt to take her bio-mechanical body over, where both beings were their original, un-powered selves. Her essence, gifted with her innate, formidable combat skills, engaged his in one-on-one combat, and she quickly overpowered and killed his astral form.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Afterwards, however, Ganthet noted immediately that there was something different about her. Boodikka claims this is because Ganthet's newly discovered emotions allowed him to see her as she is (Boodikka's true self, now in control of her body again), not by what she is (an Alpha Lantern).


title: Hank Henshaw

text: In the "Reign of Doomsday" crossover, Boodikka is attacked by Doomsday while investigating the remains of New Krypton, and Henshaw is revealed to still be alive inside her, forming a new body out of her internal circuitry to fight Doomsday while Batman and Supergirl were trying to repair Boodikka. Henshaw uses his abilities to take control of the JLA Watchtower and uses the satellite's defenses in an attempt to kill Doomsday, reasoning that if he could manage to destroy the creature that killed Superman, it would prove once and for all that he is superior to Superman. After the creature is violently dismembered by Henshaw, it somehow absorbs the nanotechnology from Henshaw's body and repairs itself, becoming a new being dubbed Cyborg Doomsday. Cyborg Doomsday somehow manages to negate Henshaw's ability to repair himself, which leads Henshaw to believe that he might finally meet his demise. Supergirl bursts onto the scene and attempts to stop Doomsday herself, but Henshaw fires an energy blast at her, stating that he would not allow her to defeat the creature that had humiliatingly beaten him only moments before. With Supergirl distracted, Cyborg Doomsday knocks her out and then tears one of Henshaw's arms off before departing with both of his unconscious captives. Trapped in a satellite with the other Supermen, the heroes conclude that Henshaw has been trapped with them to keep them disorganized due to the tensions caused by his presence, prompting Henshaw to depart and search the satellite himself. After Superman arrives to rescue his comrades, Henshaw reveals that the Doomsdays that fought them were actually all clones of the original created by Lex Luthor. Henshaw tries to fight them, but Superman rips his central node off, knowing that they would not survive a confrontation with the Doomsdays. After the Doomsday clones are sent to another dimension, Henshaw is in custody of S.T.A.R. Labs.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: In September 2011, "The New 52" rebooted DC's continuity. A fully human Henshaw appears as a doctor working for the Advanced Prosthetic Research Centre and colleague of Caitlin Fairchild. He is tasked into reactivating the android Spartan.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: While in space and after saving a planet called I'noxia, Supergirl discovers an amnesiac Cyborg Superman living there. This version is revealed to be Zor-El, who survives Krypton's destruction and is reconfigured as a half-human half-machine by Brainiac to be his scout looking for stronger species in the universe. His heart was switched with that of a human to remove his ability to be affected by kryptonite.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: When the human Henshaw is sent into space on the "Excalibur" on a long-term mission, he is monitored by the Clark Kent and Lois Lane of the pre-"Flashpoint" universe, who were trapped in the New 52 world following the "Convergence", with Superman seeking to prevent the rise of some of his former adversaries in this world. When the "Excalibur" crashes after returning from a ten-year journey to Jupiter and back, Superman saves the ship, but is puzzled to see that Henshaw is the only person on board. Taking Henshaw to a base he has established in the Arctic regions to better assess if this Henshaw is a threat or not, Superman is briefly forced to face both Henshaw and a new foe called Blanque, who possesses powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities and was also kept in the fortress, but once Blanque is focused on fighting Superman, Henshaw helps Superman defeat this new foe with the weapons of a spaceship that was also kept in the fortress. It is later revealed that Henshaw acquired part of an object known as 'the Oblivion Stone' on Jupiter, with Superman forced to face an alien warrior seeking both Henshaw's part of the stone and another part kept in the fortress, but Superman drives her off, Henshaw claiming when questioned that he had no memory of anything that happened on the "Excalibur" or between it landing and him being discovered.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: After the reality disruption caused by Mister Mxyzptlk caused the histories of the pre-"Flashpoint" and "New 52" Superman to merge during the "DC Rebirth" reboot, Henshaw's memories of his past as the Cyborg Superman were restored. With this knowledge, he assembles various old foes of Superman like Metallo, the Eradicator, Blanque, and his old 'ally' Mongul to form the Superman Revenge Squad before using the Oblivion Stone to restore his body to its Cyborg Superman state. He even expressed interest into recruiting General Zod to his group. The new Superman Revenge Squad then set out for Kal-El's Fortress of Solitude to obtain the Phantom Zone Projector, still in need of Zod's Kryptonian army to defeat the Superman family. What the Cyborg did not realize was that Zod was using the Squad to achieve his own ends. After finding his family trapped within the Zone's confines, Zod betrayed them, leaving Henshaw trapped within the Phantom Zone.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: He is later released by his hated enemy, Superman, on account of an epiphany Clark had while on a time traveling excursion with Booster Gold. To keep the maddened bionic menace docile while he came up with a more humane means of detaining him, Superman gives Henshaw a Kryptonian memory crystal that would pacify the Cyborg Superman's rage by letting him relive his happiest memories in an fantasy world fabricated by his own mind. This self-imposed incarceration would not last, however, as the demented machine man finds another means of escape. While he is trapped, a part of his mind escapes into the universe, where he sought to manipulate the Guardians and their appointed intergalactic law enforcement bureau, the Green Lantern Corps, to facilitate his escape.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Even trapped within Superman's Kryptonian dwelling, Henshaw is able to influence the Central Power Battery back on Oa a universe away. From within his cell, he orchestrates a mystery surrounding the death of a Guardian to find a powerful weapon, the Phantom Ring. After hacking into the Lantern ring network, Henshaw uses the unsuspecting Corpsmen Simon Baz, to break the Cyborg out of the Fortress of Solitude and deliver him the Phantom Ring. Henshaw is able to capture the Green Lanterns as his hacking into their main central Power Battery rendered their rings useless. John Stewart and Simon Baz use the Kryptonian weapons that Simon borrowed from the Fortress, along with the fact that any Green Lantern who had not recharged their rings prior to Henshaw hacking into the main battery (such as Hal Jordan and Kilowog) were immune, allowing them to fight back. In retaliation, Henshaw retreats to Earth with the intention to recreate the disaster of destroying Coast City with the power of the Phantom Ring. With the help of other Green Lantern Corpsmen (such as Sodam Yat), Henshaw is defeated and forced to retreat with the Phantom Ring.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Hank Henshaw is a "technomorph". Unlike a simple technopath which can physically manipulate technology with their mind, Henshaw can extend his consciousness into any machine.


title: Hank Henshaw

text: Through his technomorphic abilities, Henshaw also gained Kryptonian powers similar to Superman, while editing out weaknesses, such as his vulnerability to kryptonite. He could even commandeer complex alien technology, including power rings, controlling and assimilating the energy fueling them, as well as their batteries.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: Vergangenheitsbewältigung (, "struggle to overcome the past" or "working through the past") is a German term describing processes that since the later 20th century have become key in the study of post-1945 German literature, society, and culture.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: The German Duden lexicon defines "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" as "public debate within a country on a problematic period of its recent history—in Germany on National Socialism, in particular"—where "problematic" refers to traumatic events that raise sensitive questions of collective culpability. In Germany, and originally, the term refers to embarrassment about and often remorse for Germans' complicity in the war crimes of the Wehrmacht, Holocaust, and related events of the early and mid-20th century, including World War II. In this sense, the word can refer to the psychological process of denazification. With the accession of the former German Democratic Republic into the current Federal Republic of Germany in the reunification of 1990 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" can also refer to coming to terms with the excesses and human rights abuses associated with that former one-party state.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" describes the attempt to analyze, digest and learn to live with the past, in particular the Holocaust. The focus on learning is much in the spirit of philosopher George Santayana's oft-quoted observation that "those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it". It is a technical term also used in English that was coined after 1945 in West Germany, relating specifically to the atrocities committed in Nazi Germany, and to both historical and contemporary concerns about the extensive degree to which Nazism compromised and co-opted many German cultural, religious, and political institutions. The term therefore deals at once with the concrete responsibility of the German state (West Germany assumed the legal obligations of the "Reich") and of individual Germans for what took place "under Hitler", and with questions about the roots of legitimacy in a society whose development of the Enlightenment collapsed in the face of Nazi ideology.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: Historically, "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" often is seen as the logical "next step" after a denazification drive under both the Allied Occupation and by the Christian Democratic Union government of Konrad Adenauer, and began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, roughly the period in which the work of the "Wiederaufbau" (reconstruction) became less absorbing and urgent. Having replaced the institutions and power structures of Nazism, the aim of liberal Germans was to deal with the guilt of recent history. "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" is marked by learning from the past in ways such as honestly admitting that such a past did indeed exist, attempting to remedy as far as possible the wrongs committed, and attempting to move on from that past.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: The German churches, of which only a minority played a significant role in the resistance to Nazism, have led the way in this process. They have notably developed a unique German postwar theology of repentance. At the regular mass church rallies, the Lutheran Kirchentag and the Catholic "Katholikentag", for example, have developed this theme as a leitmotiv of Christian youth.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" has been expressed by the society through its schools, where in most German states the centrally-written curriculum provides each child with repeated lessons on different aspects of Nazism in German history, politics and religion classes from the fifth grade onwards, related to their maturity. Associated school trips may have destinations of concentration camps. Jewish Holocaust survivors are often invited to schools as guest speakers, though the passage of time limits these opportunities as their generation has aged.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: In philosophy, Theodor Adorno's writings include the lecture "Was bedeutet: Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit?" ("What is meant by 'working through the past'?"), a subject related to his thinking of "after Auschwitz" in his later work. He delivered the lecture on 9 November 1959 at a conference on education held in Wiesbaden. Writing in the context of a new wave of anti-Semitic attacks against synagogues and Jewish community institutions occurring in West Germany at that time, Adorno rejected the contemporary catch phrase "working through the past" as misleading. He argued that it masked a denial, rather than signifying the kind of critical self-reflection that Freudian theory called for in order to "come to terms" with the past.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: Adorno's lecture is often seen as consisting in part of a variably implicit and explicit critique of the work of Martin Heidegger, whose formal ties to the Nazi Party are well known. Heidegger, distinct from his role as a member of the Nazi Party, attempted to provide a historical conception of Germania as a philosophical notion of German origin and destiny (later he would speak of "the West"). Alexander García Düttmann's "Das Gedächtnis des Denkens. Versuch über Heidegger und Adorno" ("The Memory of Thought: An Essay on Heidegger and Adorno", translated by Nicholas Walker) attempts to treat the philosophical value of these seemingly opposed and certainly incompatible terms "Auschwitz" and "Germania" in the philosophy of both men.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: In the cultural sphere, the term "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" is associated with a movement in German literature whose notable authors include Günter Grass and Siegfried Lenz. Lenz's novel "Deutschstunde" and Grass's "Danziger Trilogie" both deal with childhoods under Nazism.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: The erection of public monuments to Holocaust victims has been a tangible commemoration of Germany's "Vergangenheitsbewältigung". Concentration camps, such as Dachau, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen and Flossenbürg, are open to visitors as memorials and museums. Most towns have plaques on walls marking the spots where particular atrocities took place.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: When the seat of government was moved from Bonn to Berlin in 1999, an extensive "Holocaust memorial", designed by architect Peter Eisenman, was planned as part of the extensive development of new official buildings in the district of Berlin-Mitte; it was opened on 10 May 2005. The informal name of this memorial, the "Holocaust-Mahnmal," is significant. It does not translate easily: "Holocaust Cenotaph" would be one sense, but the noun "Mahnmal," which is distinct from the term "Denkmal" (typically used to translate "memorial") carries the sense of "admonition", "urging", "appeal", or "warning", rather than "remembrance" as such. The work is formally known as "Das Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas" (English translation, "The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe"). Some controversy attaches to it precisely because of this formal name and its exclusive emphasis on Jewish victims. As Eisenman acknowledged at the opening ceremony, "It is clear that we won't have solved all the problemsarchitecture is not a panacea for evilnor will we have satisfied all those present today, but this cannot have been our intention."


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: In Austria, ongoing arguments about the nature and significance of the Anschluss, and unresolved disputes about legal expressions of obligation and liability, have led to very different concerns, and to a far less institutionalized response by the government. Since the late 20th century, observers and analysts have expressed concerns about the ascent of "Haiderism".


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: Poland has maintained a museum, archive, and research institute at Oświęcim () ever since a 2 July 1947 act of the Polish Parliament. In the same year, Czechoslovakia established what was known as the "National Suffering Memorial" and later as the Terezín memorial in Terezín, Czech Republic. This site during the Holocaust was known as the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. In the context of varying degrees of Communist orthodoxy in both countries during the period of Soviet domination of Eastern Europe through much of the late 20th century, historical research into the Holocaust was politicized to varying degrees. Marxist doctrines of class struggle were often overlaid onto generally received histories, which tended to exclude both acts of collaboration and antisemitism in these nations.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: The advance of the "Einsatzgruppen", "Aktion Reinhardt", and many other significant events in the Holocaust occurred in German-occupied Europe, outside the present-day borders of the Federal Republic. The history of the memorials and archives which have been erected at these sites in eastern Europe is associated with the Communist regimes that ruled these areas for more than four decades after World War II. The Nazis promoted an idea of an expansive German nation extending into territories where ethnic Germans had previously settled. They invaded and controlled much of Central and Eastern Europe, unleashing violence against various Slavic groups, as well as Jews, Communists, prisoners of war, etc. After the war, the eastern European nations expelled German settlers as well as long settled ethnic Germans (the "Volksdeutsche") as a reaction to Nazi Germany's attempt to claim the eastern lands on behalf of ethnic Germans.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: In some of its aspects, "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" can be compared to the attempts of other democratic countries to raise consciousness and come to terms with earlier periods of governmental and insurgency abuses, such as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated human rights abuses by both the National Party Government in South Africa under apartheid and by senior members of the African National Congress including Winnie Mandela and by the ANC's paramilitary wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: Comparisons have been made with the Soviet process of "glasnost" and "perestroika", though this was less focused on the past than achieving a level of open criticism necessary for progressive reform to take place.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: It was widely assumed during this time that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union would maintain its monopoly on power. American journalist David Remnick, however, has argued that once Memorial was founded by former Soviet dissidents in 1987 and began independently researching and publicizing accurate historical information about Soviet war crimes and the location of mass graves containing the victims of the Red Terror, Stalinism, and the Gulag; the clock began ticking on the continued survival of the Communist system.


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the continuing efforts in nations of eastern Europe and the independent states of the former Soviet Union to research and publicize the Communist and Stalinist past, as well as its countless human rights abuses, is sometimes referred to as an post-communist equivalent to "Vergangenheitsbewältigung."


title: Vergangenheitsbewältigung

text: The well-documented history of Japanese war crimes, both before and during World War II is something the then-future Emperor Naruhito expressed his concerns about in February 2015, regarding how accurately such events are remembered in 21st century Japan.


title: Minamoto no Yorimitsu

text: , also known as Minamoto no Raikō, served the regents of the Fujiwara clan along with his brother Yorinobu, taking the violent measures the Fujiwara were themselves unable to take. He is one of the earliest Minamoto of historical note for his military exploits, and is known for quelling the bandits of Ōeyama.


title: Minamoto no Yorimitsu

text: His loyal service earned him the governorships of Izu Province, Kozuke and a number of others in turn, as well as a number of other high government positions. Yorimitsu served as commander of a regiment of the Imperial Guard, and as a secretary in the Ministry of War. When his father Minamoto no Mitsunaka died, he inherited Settsu Province.


title: Minamoto no Yorimitsu

text: Yorimitsu is usually accompanied by his four legendary retainers, known as the Shitennō (The Four Heavenly Kings). They were Watanabe no Tsuna, Sakata no Kintoki, Urabe no Suetake, and Usui Sadamitsu.


title: Minamoto no Yorimitsu

text: Yorimitsu featured in a number of legends and tales, including the legend of Kintarō (Golden Boy a.k.a. Sakata no Kintoki), the legend of Shuten Dōji, and the legend of Tsuchigumo. The "tachi" (long sword) 'Dōjigiri' owned by Tokyo National Museum and selected as a National Treasure and "Tenka-Goken" ("Five Swords under Heaven"), and 'Onikirimaru' owned by Tada Shrine, have a legend that Yorimitsu beheaded Shuten Dōji. Also, three swords of the same name, 'Hizamaru' owned by Daikaku-ji Temple, Hakone Shrine and an individual, have a legend that Yorimitsu beat off Tsuchigumo.


title: Minamoto no Yorimitsu

text: The Karatsu Kunchi festival in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, features a large float inspired by the helmet of Minamoto, being partially devoured by the oni Shuten Douji.


title: Erinaceidae

text: Erinaceidae is a family in the order Eulipotyphla, consisting of the hedgehogs and moonrats. Until recently, it was assigned to the order Erinaceomorpha, which has been subsumed with the paraphyletic Soricomorpha into Eulipotyphla. Eulipotyphla has been shown to be monophyletic; Soricomorpha is paraphyletic because Soricidae shared a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with other soricomorphs.


title: Erinaceidae

text: Erinaceidae contains the well-known hedgehogs (subfamily Erinaceinae) of Eurasia and Africa and the gymnures or moonrats (subfamily Galericinae) of South-east Asia. This family was once considered part of the order Insectivora, but that polyphyletic order is now considered defunct.


title: Erinaceidae

text: Erinaceids are generally shrew-like in form, with long snouts and short tails. They are, however, much larger than shrews, ranging from in body length and in weight, in the case of the short-tailed gymnure, up to and in the moonrat. All but one species have five toes in each foot, in some cases with strong claws for digging, and they have large eyes and ears. Hedgehogs possess hair modified into sharp spines to form a protective covering over the upper body and flanks, while gymnures have only normal hair. Most species have anal scent glands, but these are far better developed in gymnures, which can have a powerful odor.


title: Erinaceidae

text: Erinaceids are omnivorous, with the major part of their diet consisting of insects, earthworms, and other small invertebrates. They also eat seeds and fruit, and occasionally birds' eggs, along with any carrion they come across. Their teeth are sharp and suited for impaling invertebrate prey. The dental formula for erinaceids is:


title: Erinaceidae

text: Hedgehogs are nocturnal, but gymnures are less so, and may be active during the day. Many species live in simple burrows, while others construct temporary nests on the surface from leaves and grass, or shelter in hollow logs or similar hiding places. Erinaceids are solitary animals outside the breeding season, and the father plays no role in raising the young.


title: Erinaceidae

text: Female erinaceids give birth after a gestation period of around six to seven weeks. The young are born blind and hairless, although hedgehogs begin to sprout their spines within 36 hours of birth.


title: Erinaceidae

text: Erinaceids are a relatively primitive group of placental mammals, having changed little since their origin in the Eocene. The so-called 'giant hedgehog' (actually a gymnure) "Deinogalerix", from the Miocene of Gargano Island (part of modern Italy), was the size of a large rabbit, and may have eaten vertebrate prey or carrion, rather than insects.


title: Persian mythology

text: Persian mythology or Iranian mythology (Persian:اساطیرشناسی ایرانی) is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples, and a genre of Ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Persians' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of not only modern-day Iran but the Greater Iran, which includes regions of West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and Transcaucasia where Iranian culture has had significant influence. Historically, these were regions long ruled by dynasties of various Iranian empires, that incorporated considerable aspects of Persian culture through extensive contact with them, or where sufficient Iranian peoples settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures. It roughly corresponds to the Iranian plateau and its bordering plains. The Encyclopædia Iranica uses the term "Iranian Cultural Continent" for this region.


title: Persian mythology

text: Most characters in Persian mythology are either good, or they are evil. The resultant discord mirrors the nationalistic ideals of the early Islamic era as well as the moral and ethical perceptions of the Zoroastrian period, in which the world was perceived to be locked in a battle between the destructive "Ahriman" and his hordes of demonic "Div"s and their Aneran supporters, versus the Creator "Ormuzd", who although not participating in the day-to-day affairs of mankind, was represented in the world by the "izad"s and the righteous "ahlav" Iranians.


title: Persian mythology

text: On the other side of the fence is Zahhak, a symbol of despotism who was, finally, defeated by Kāve, who led a popular uprising against him. Zahhak () was guarded by two vipers which grew out from both of his shoulders. No matter how many times they were beheaded, new heads grew on them to guard him. The snake, like in many other mythologies, was a symbol of evil, but many other animals and birds appear in Iranian mythology, and, especially, the birds were signs of good omens. Most famous of these is the Simurgh, a large, beautiful, and powerful bird; and the Huma bird, a royal bird of victory whose plume adorned Persian crowns.


title: Persian mythology

text: Peri (Avestan "Pairika"), a beautiful albeit evil woman in early mythology, gradually became less evil and more beautiful.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: During Tulsi Gabbard's tenure as a congresswoman and presidential candidate, she placed much emphasis on her foreign policy views and regarded them as inseparable from her domestic policy views. She criticizes what she terms the "neoliberal/neoconservative war machine", which pushes for US involvement in "wasteful foreign wars". She has said that the money spent on war should be redirected to serve health care, infrastructure, and other domestic priorities. Nevertheless, she describes herself as both a hawk and a dove: "When it comes to the war against terrorists, I'm a hawk", but "when it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I'm a dove".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: As a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Tulsi Gabbard's political positions were broadly similar to those of contenders on health care, climate, education, infrastructure, and criminal justice reform, but she had distinguishable positions on issues ranging from Democratic Party internal politics to foreign affairs.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: After ending her presidential campaign, Gabbard has since taken more conservative positions on culture war and social issues, including abortion and transgender rights. Gabbard endorsed the controversial Florida House Bill 1557, referred to by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, and in 2022, she was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). She has been a frequent critic of the Biden Administration. Later in 2022, she announced that she had quit the Democratic Party though without joining any other party. In her announcement she not only echoed conservative criticisms of the Democratic Party but also stated that she feared that the Democrats would start a nuclear war.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard describes herself as both a hawk and a dove: "When it comes to the war against terrorists, I'm a hawk," but "when it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I'm a dove." She has said that such wars "undermine our national security and … actually increase the suffering of people in the countries where we wage them." Asked if there were any wars that justified the use of US military force, Gabbard said there are "very few examples" and cited World War II.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard is widely portrayed as an apologist for America's enemies and has been accused of being a "Russian asset". When asked about her coverage in the mainstream media, Gabbard has said "We have seen for a long time how the mainstream media has been complicit in further pushing and pursuing the foreign policy establishment narrative."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard was a five-year "term member" of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). When asked about her involvement in it, she said that while many in CFR did not share her worldview, "If we only sit in rooms with people who we agree with, then we won’t be able to bring about the kind of change that we need to see."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Following her 2017 visit to Syria, Gabbard opposed US involvement in regime change, calling it counterproductive to defeating ISIL, Al-Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard considers herself a hawk on war on terror. She favors a "very limited use of drones" in situations where the "military is not able to get in without creating an unacceptable level of risk."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard criticized the Obama administration for "refusing" to say that "Islamic extremists" are waging a war against the United States. She has said it was Al-Qaeda who "attacked us on 9/11" and it is they who "must be defeated." She continued: "Obama won't bomb them in Syria. Putin did."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2016, Gabbard spoke out against Islamism, stating "The ideology shared by ISIS, Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist organizations is "Islamism." Distinct from the religion of Islam, Islamism is a radical political ideology of violent jihad aimed at establishing a totalitarian society governed by laws based on a particular interpretation of Islam.”


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On December 20, 2019, the Stop Arming Terrorists Act that she introduced in 2017 became law as part of National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, § 1228 to prohibit the Department of Defense from "knowingly providing weapons or any other form of support to Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the Islamic State" or other terrorist groups or individual or groups affiliated with any such organization.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard's views on Islamic terrorism have distinguished her from many mainstream Democrats. In 2015 she met with U.S.-backed Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to discuss "the threat of ISIS and Islamic extremist groups". She has advocated increasing pressure on Pakistan to stop terrorist attacks and expressed "solidarity with India" in reference to the 2016 Uri attack. Gabbard has said she is mindful that most Muslims are not extremist, but has criticised Obama and Hillary Clinton for not acknowledging the threat posed by radical Islam.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard decries powerful politicians who "beat the drums of war and ratchet up tensions" between the U.S. and nuclear-armed countries", dragging the country toward a New Cold War arms race, thereby bringing "the front lines … to our doorstep, as we sit on the precipice of nuclear war." She notes that nuclear strategists say "we are at a greater risk of nuclear war than we ever have been before."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has introduced legislation to prevent the use of taxpayer dollars for weapons that violate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and has expressed disappointment no moderators at the Democratic presidential primary debates have "raised the issues or asked a question related to the most existential threat we face in this country."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In a 2018 interview with "The Intercept", Gabbard said U.S. efforts at regime change "have ended up worse off for the people of those countries and have been counterproductive to the interests of the American people." "The Intercept" described her as "an outspoken critic of U.S. involvement in the Middle East from the disastrous Iraq War to NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya that followed Arab Spring protests against the brutal regime of Moammar Gadhafi." She has also called for an end to the nearly two-decades-long U.S. war in Afghanistan. In her February 2, 2019 campaign launch, Gabbard called on everyone to take a stand against what she described as the "neolibs and neocons" from both parties promoting regime change. In a campaign email released later that week, she wrote that "media giants ruled by corporate interests … in the pocket of the ‘establishment war machine'" deploy journalism to "silence debate and dissent."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: According to "Rolling Stone" columnist Matt Taibbi, Gabbard's position is "not as has been represented in most press accounts. … She’s not an isolationist. She’s simply opposed to bombing the crap out of, and occupying, foreign countries for no apparent positive strategic objective, beyond enriching contractors".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On November 17, 2015, Gabbard, as one of the Hawaii legislators remarking on Gov. David Ige's support of President Obama's commitment to accept refugees from Syria, said "I’m currently … doing my due diligence on this vetting process … from the appropriate departments, from the Homeland Security, the intelligence community, and so on and so forth. The most humane thing we can do [regarding Syria] is stop creating new refugees."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On November 19, 2015, Gabbard sponsored with Austin Scott (R-GA) (also a member of the House Armed Services Committee), H.R. 4108, a bipartisan bill to end U.S. efforts to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic led by President Bashar al-Assad. Gabbard said that "The war to overthrow Assad is counter-productive because it actually helps ISIS and other Islamic extremists achieve their goal of overthrowing the Syrian government of Assad and taking control of all of Syria—which will simply increase human suffering in the region, exacerbate the refugee crisis."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On January 26, 2017, in response to reports President Trump was expected to order a temporary ban on refugees, Gabbard commented "[W]e must address the root cause that is making people flee their homes— regime-change wars." In subsequent comments, she added that in Syria she had met with pastors who described intense suffering: "The reality of a genocide against religious minorities is very real".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In March 2017, in response to President Trump's announcement of a newly revised blanket ban of refugees, Gabbard said "[W]e must address the cause of this refugee crisis and end the destructive U.S. policy of counterproductive regime-change wars, as we've seen most recently in Iraq, Libya, and now in Syria."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In March, 2013, Gabbard joined with ten other Democratic and eight Republican representatives in a letter to President Obama asking that he "extend and reform visa programs for Iraqi and Afghan allies … who have risked their lives to aid our troops and protect America’s security, … as federal agencies have issued only a fraction of the visas that Congress originally authorized."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In September, 2015, Gabbard sponsored with Duncan Hunter (R-CA), a bill "[r]ecognizing the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, especially Christians and Yezidis by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Daesh, and calling for the immediate prioritization of accepting refugees from such communities." Gabbard noted these "and other minority groups in the Middle East are being targeted specifically because of their religious beliefs, and face forced conversions to Islam, mass abductions, sexual enslavements, and executions due to this ISIL-inflicted genocide."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In November, 2015, after the ISIS terrorist attacks on Paris, Gabbard and 46 other Democrats voted with Congressional Republicans in favor of the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act of 2015 to require "supplemental certifications and background investigations on refugees from Syria and Iraq". President Obama said he would veto the bill: "We are not well served when, in response to a terrorist attack, we descend into fear and panic." Gabbard, in explaining her vote, said "voting for this bill was not a vote against refugees" but about "the long term viability and continuation of our country serving as a place of refuge for those who are truly in need of shelter." "It would be a double disaster if someone who came to America as a refugee ended up engaging in a terrorist act … [as] happened before in 2009, when two al-Qaeda terrorists came to the U.S. as refugees from Iraq and were actively supporting al-Qaeda from the U.S. while also plotting an attack on U.S. soil. Following their discovery and arrest, … the refugee program for Iraqis was completely shut down for six months."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Also in November, 2015, Gabbard called for a suspension of the Visa Waiver Program for European passport holders until the intelligence community catches up with the influx of Syrian refugees. In response to Wolf Blitzer noting others were concerned about the economic impact of suspending the program, Gabbard said: "You want to talk about the effect on the economy if these actions are not taken and an attack is allowed to occur here, even though we’ve identified this vulnerability?"


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In January, 2017, in response to reports President Trump was expected to order a temporary ban on refugees, Gabbard said, "We shouldn’t ban refugees from entering our country. We need to responsibly ensure thorough vetting is in place …" She called the president's order "unacceptable".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In March, 2017, in response to President Trump's announcement of a newly revised blanket ban of refugees, Gabbard said, "True to our history and values as a nation, we have served as a place of refuge to the most vulnerable in the world. We should not be putting in place a blanket ban of refugees …."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: While Gabbard initially voted in favor of sanctions, she has since condemned the act of "starving [other nations] with draconian sanctions". In March 2019, she cosponsored Rep. Khanna's letter which expresses concern of the Trump administration's "misguided policies" such as "broad unilateral sanctions" and how they make life worse for ordinary Venezuelan people.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In June 2020, Gabbard introduced and passed an amendment to the House version of the 2021 NDAA, which would require the Department of Defense to assess the humanitarian impact of sanctions, though it was not included in the final bill. In December 2020, she introduced H.Res.1270, which called sanctions "an instrument of modern-day economic warfare" and called for no taxpayer dollars, government personnel, or equipment should be used to impose sanctions that inflict suffering on civilian populations.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In a December 2014 interview Gabbard said she was "conflicted" about the report published that week on the CIA's use of torture in interrogations, saying, "the jury is still out on the report". She also said that while she abhorred torture, were there an imminent danger to American citizens, as president she "would do everything in my power to keep the American people safe."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In a February 2019 interview with the "Status Coup", Gabbard said, "Through my time on the armed services committee in congress over the last five years I've supported amendments to the defense bill that ban torture, ban these enhanced interrogation techniques, and as president will continue to strongly oppose torture and the use of those techniques".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: At the Democratic debate on July 31, 2019, Gabbard accused Trump of continuing to betray Americans by repeatedly walking back his plans to withdraw from Afghanistan, adding that withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan was about leadership" and that "the leadership" she would bring would be "to do the right thing" and "bring our troops home within the first year in office and end the wasteful regime change wars …."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: After "The Washington Post" reported on long lasting and systematic misleading of the American public by the US government about the situation and progress of the Afghanistan war, Gabbard said she would introduce legislation for a Congressional inquiry into "the lying and wasting of taxpayer dollars" and lives of US service members. She accused the military-industrial complex, contractors and consultancy companies of profiting from "a scam that ripped the US taxpayers off over a trillion dollars since 9/11 in Afghanistan alone." Gabbard reiterated her request to bring US troops home from Afghanistan.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard supports a strong US-India relationship "of mutual respect … for many reasons—not the least of which is the war against terrorists." Critics charge that she is too close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She has met with officials from both the BJP and the major opposition party, Indian National Congress, and has disputed claims she is partial to any political party in India.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard was critical of the U.S. decision to deny Modi a visa over allegations of his involvement in the 2002 Gujarat riots, calling it a "great blunder" that could have undermined the U.S.-India relationship. In 2013 she joined some of her colleagues on the House Foreign Affairs Committee in opposing a House resolution that called for continuing the ban on Modi and for "religious freedom and related human rights to be included in the United States-India Strategic Dialogue and for such issues to be raised directly with federal and state Indian government officials". The bill admonished India to protect "the rights and freedoms of religious minorities" and specifically mentioned incidents of mass violence against India's Muslim minority that took place during Modi's tenure. Gabbard justified her opposition by saying the resolution would weaken the friendship between India and the US and citing its timing as potential interference in the Indian elections, while emphasizing the need for the U.S. to stand for religious freedom.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In January 2019 "The Intercept" published an article stating that Gabbard had links with Hindu nationalist organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America and the Hindu American Foundation. Gabbard rejected the idea that meeting with a democratically elected leader was evidence of collusion with that leader's party. An earlier version of "The Intercept"s article searched Gabbard's donor list for "names ... of Hindu origin" to "show Gabbard's broad base of support in the Hindu-American community". Gabbard criticized this as religious bigotry, saying that Christians would not be subject to such scrutiny based on their names. "The Intercept" removed the sentence with an apology, saying that it was not intended "to question the motives of those political donors" and apologizing "for any such implication".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2013, Gabbard co-sponsored and voted for the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, which imposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Despite her initial criticism of it, Gabbard voted in favor of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement with Iran that imposed restraints on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting nuclear-related sanctions against Iran. She opposes the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the JCPOA and has said that as president she would reenter the agreement, but also negotiate on remaining issues in order to find a diplomatic solution and deescalate tensions.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In May 2019 Gabbard warned about the danger, costs, and consequences of a potential war with Iran and criticized the Trump administration for elevating tensions. She said it would be illegal for the Trump administration to take action against Iran relying on a 2001 law that authorized the use of U.S. Armed Forces against those responsible for the September 11 attacks and any "associated forces".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In January 2020 Gabbard denounced President Trump's assassination of Iran's Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as an act of war against Iran without Congressional declaration of war and thereby violation of the U.S. Constitution. She questioned what the actual goal of the U.S. administration in Iraq is and warned of an Iranian retaliation that could lead to a devastating war.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard said the U.S. regime change wars in , and caused Iraq and Syria to seek support from Iran and thereby created the growing influence of Iran in Iraq and Syria which the U.S. now attempts to counter militarily. After U.S. troops announced they suspended their anti-terror operations in Iraq to concentrate on handling the fallout from Soleimani's assassination, Gabbard said the act of war against Iran broke the fragile alliance between Iran, Iraq and the U.S. in combating ISIS, potentially causing a resurgence of terrorist groups. Iran's withdrawal from the JCPOA means Iran gets closer to acquiring nuclear weapon capability according to Gabbard, who requested an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Syria to prevent the U.S. getting into the "quagmire" of a prolonged militarily "tit-for-tat".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: She would deescalate tensions with Iran by ending the "crippling" economic sanctions and reentering JCPOA to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapon capability. This was in stark contrast to her previous support for Iranian sanctions.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: The intelligence briefing by the Trump administration did not convince Gabbard about the alleged "imminent threat" by Soleimani and gave "no justification whatsoever for this illegal and unconstitutional act of war". In her view, President Trump's actions showed a lack of basic understanding and foresight in national security. Gabbard held a floor speech in the House to advocate for passing H.Con.Res.83 which reasserts the Constitutional authority of Congress to declare war and specifically directs the President to terminate the use of U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran. H.Con.Res.83 passed the House with a 224–194 vote.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Since 2018, Gabbard had repeatedly attempted to insert amendments into the National Defense Authorization Act to prevent the President from starting a war with Iran without Congressional approval, and she introduced the No More Presidential Wars Actto define starting or joining a war without Congressional approval an impeachable "high crime and misdemeanor". However, these previous legislative efforts did not find majorities in Congress. Her campaign streamed a panel discussion with Stephen Kinzer and Dennis Kucinich on the Iran–United States relations in a collaboration with Kim Iversen.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard supports a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. In March 2015, unlike 58 other Democrats, she did not boycott Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the U.S. Congress, saying at the time that relations "must rise above the political fray, as America continues to stand with Israel as her strongest ally". On July 14, 2015, Gabbard attended the Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a conservative-leaning organization.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In January 2017, Gabbard voted against a House resolution condemning the U.N. Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements built in the West Bank. She said: "While I remain concerned about aspects of the U.N. resolution, I share the Obama administration's reservation about the harmful impact Israeli settlement activity has on the prospects for peace." She criticized Israel's use of live ammunition along the Gaza fence in May 2018.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In March 2019, Gabbard responded to controversies arising from tweets by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) suggesting US support for Israel is motivated by money, which were characterized by both Democrats and Republicans as anti-Semitic. Gabbard told CNN, "There are people who have expressed their offense at these statements. I think that what Congresswoman Omar was trying to get at was a deeper issue related to our foreign policy, and I think there's an important discussion that we have to be able to have openly, even though we may end up disagreeing at the end of it, but we've got to have that openness to have the conversation."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On July 23, 2019, Gabbard voted in favor of House Resolution 246, which expressed House opposition to the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement) movement as delegitimizing the State of Israel, re-affirmed support for a two-state solution, and affirmed U.S. citizens rights to protest or criticize the policies of the U.S. or foreign governments. Gabbard explained her vote by saying that she supported "a two-state solution that provides for the rights of both Israel and Palestine to exist, and for their people to live in peace, with security, in their homes. I don't believe the BDS movement is the only or best way to accomplish that. However, I will continue to defend those who choose to exercise their right to free speech without threat of legal action."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On July 30, 2019, Gabbard co-sponsored House Resolution 496, introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar on July 17, which "affirms that all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution". Omar, shortly before introducing the bill, declared it "an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a non-violent movement, which is the BDS movement". Gabbard explained that she co-sponsored the resolution "to affirm our freedom of speech and rights to protest or boycott for any cause", and stated that she "will continue to oppose unconstitutional legislation ... that seeks to restrict freedom of speech by imposing legal penalties against those who participate in the BDS movement".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2015, Gabbard claimed it was "understandable, given that Iran is right on their doorstep and this threat from Iran remains a concern" for Saudi Arabia to pursue its own nuclear program.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard opposed a $1.15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. She declared, "The U.S. must stop arming Saudi Arabia, stop fueling this fire and hold Saudi Arabia accountable for their actions."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has called for ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, saying the U.S. is complicit in a humanitarian disaster. In September 2018 she supported legislation invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to stop U.S. involvement in the war.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In November 2018, after Trump indicated the U.S. would not sanction Saudi Arabia over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, Gabbard tweeted at Trump, "being Saudi Arabia's bitch is not 'America First’."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In October 2019, Gabbard requested the Trump administration to end all aid to Saudi Arabia until the findings of its investigation into possible Saudi involvement in the September 11 attacks are made public.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2013, Gabbard opposed the Obama administration's proposed military strikes in Syria and in November 2015 introduced legislation to block CIA activities in Syria and U.S. military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This legislation was referred to House committees and subsequently blocked.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In October, 2015, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Gabbard: "Does it not concern you that Bashar al-Assad's regime has been brutal, killing at least 200,000, maybe 300,000 of its own people?". Gabbard responded by commenting "the same things that are being said about Assad right now were said about Gadhafi" and Saddam Hussein "by those who were advocating for the U.S. to go in and intervene, to overthrow those regimes" and dictators. If the response is in the same way as in those wars, she continued, "we will end up with a situation far worse than we're seeing today ... with far greater human suffering, with far greater persecution of religious minorities and Christians in Syria, and our enemy will be far stronger." Hezbollah, and the Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria, were "working towards defeating our common enemy", meaning groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, who she said made up "the vast majority" of the "so-called Syrian rebels."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In March 2016, Gabbard was one of three members of Congress to vote against House Resolution 121, which condemned the government of Syria and "other parties to the conflict" for war crimes and crimes against humanity," saying that though Assad was a "brutal dictator," the resolution was "a War Bill—a thinly veiled attempt to use the rationale of 'humanitarianism' as a justification for overthrowing the Syrian government". In November 2016, she met with Trump in an effort to convince him of her point of view. In 2017, Gabbard cited US "regime-change" involvement in Syria as a source of the Syrian refugee crisis.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In January 2017, Gabbard had two unplanned meetings with Assad during a trip to Syria and Lebanon. Gabbard said that the Syrian people's message was "powerful and consistent: there is no difference between 'moderate' rebels and al-Qaeda (al-Nusra) or ISIS—they are all the same". She described the Syrian conflict as "a war between terrorists under the command of groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda and the Syrian government".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard expressed skepticism regarding claims that Assad used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians, saying that "there is evidence to suggest that the attacks may have been staged by opposition forces for the purpose of drawing the United States and the West deeper into the war." Following the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack, Gabbard called for a U.N. investigation into the attack and prosecution of Assad by the International Criminal Court should he be found responsible. After Trump ordered the 2017 Shayrat missile strike targeting the Syrian airfield believed to be the source of the attack, Gabbard called the strike reckless "without care or consideration of the dire consequences of the United States attack on Syria without waiting for the collection of evidence from the scene of the chemical poisoning." Her statements were sharply criticized both by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In a 2018 interview with "The Nation", Gabbard said the United States had "been waging a regime change war in Syria since 2011. Central to that war to overthrow the Syrian government of Assad, the U.S., along with its allies Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, has been providing direct and indirect support to terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda". In an August 2019 interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Gabbard said of Assad: "He's a brutal dictator. Just like Saddam Hussein. Just like Gadhafi in Libya. The reason that I'm so outspoken on this issue of ending these wasteful regime-change wars is because I have seen firsthand this high human cost of war and the impact that it has on my fellow brothers and sisters in uniform".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In August 2019, Eliot Higgins described Gabbard's views on chemical weapons usage in the Syrian Civil War, as expressed on her campaign website, as a "contradictory error-filled mess".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard told "The Washington Post" in September 2019: "It is in our national security interests to end our regime change war in Syria. That war is prolonging the suffering of the Syrians, preventing Syrian refugees from returning home, strengthening al-Qaeda and Iran’s influence. Diplomatic relations are not a stamp of approval — they’re necessary to prevent war and resolve conflict. I would reestablish relations with Syria, whoever their president is, and work to bring peace to its long-suffering people."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In October 2019, Gabbard introduced legislation invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to remove all troops from Syria which have no Congressional authorization for deployment. The legislation specifically opposes US President Trump's announcement to militarily "secure the oil" in Syria with the prospect of perhaps having to "fight for it", as well as Secretary of Defense Esper's announcement to deny Syrian forces access to the oil. Gabbard called the US government's action in Syria "the next step of the modern day siege that has been happening in Syria since 2011. It deprives the Syrian people of the resources they need to survive and to rebuild their lives." Gabbard also called for an end to arming terrorist groups and an end to the "draconian" sanctions against Syria that prevent "the most vulnerable people" in Syria from getting "power, food and medicine".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In October 2019, Gabbard described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a "radical Islamist megalomaniac" and accused his government of supporting the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State terror organizations. This earned her support from prominent Erdogan critic and NBA player Enes Kanter. She has described the method by which Trump partially withdrew troops from northeastern Syria as "laying out a red-carpet, a green light for Erdoğan and Turkey to launch an ethnic cleansing and offensive against the Kurds."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership and led protests against it. A member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, she criticized both the deal itself and the secrecy surrounding the negotiations: "Because of a woeful lack of transparency, the American people know very little about his this agreement will benefit multi-national corporations at the expense of the American worker. … Despite the lack of transparency, one can predict the impact of TPP and whose interests this deal will serve, based on who favors the agreement."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In the wake of the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, Gabbard said the United States needed to stay out of Venezuela and not get involved in overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. She said Venezuela, not the United States, should choose its government.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Aside from the "one main issue that is central to the rest, … war and peace", Gabbard highlights the following as the most important issues to her: national health insurance, big pharmaceutical and insurance companies; criminal justice reform, drug laws and the private prison industry; financial reform, including holding big banks and their executives accountable; and climate change and pollution.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has generally supported legal abortion through the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, though her views on abortion have evolved over time.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: When young, Gabbard opposed abortion. She changed her views on abortion (along with her views on LGBTQ issues) during her military experience in Iraq, seeing "the destructive effect of having governments ... act as moral arbiters for their people".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: During her early years in Congress, Gabbard had a 100% voting record with both Planned Parenthood and NARAL, though she supported regulating abortions during the third trimester of pregnancy, stating on "The Rubin Report": "I think [in] the third trimester, unless a woman's life or severe health consequences is at risk, then there shouldn't be an abortion in the third trimester."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On December 9, 2020, Gabbard introduced a legislative bill which sought to ensure that a health-care practitioner exercises the proper degree of care in the event that a child survives an abortion, as an amendment to Title 18 of the United States Code. The next day, Gabbard introduced a bill that would have prohibited all abortions after 20 weeks gestational age. Neither bill was brought to the House floor for a vote.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In her full statement regarding her decision to leave the Democratic Party, Gabbard criticized the Biden Administration's October 2022 arrest and indictment of several pro-life activists who had allegedly blocked access to an abortion clinic. Gabbard also criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and Senator Elizabeth Warren's statements on the "illegitimacy of the Supreme Court" in light of their disappointment with the "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization" ruling.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has been outspoken against a "broken criminal justice system" and abuse of private prisons that together put "people in prison for smoking marijuana while allowing corporations" such as Purdue Pharma, "who are responsible for the opioid-related deaths of thousands …, to walk away scot-free with their coffers full. This so-called criminal justice system, which favors the rich and powerful and punishes the poor, cannot stand." In December 2018, she co-sponsored the First Step Act as a "first in a long line of steps toward comprehensive criminal justice reform, … greater sentencing reform, and [to] eradicate the private prison industry."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has stated that resources need to be dedicated "at every level of education as well as beyond" to help people with disabilities get the jobs they need to succeed. In addition to cosponsoring several bills of importance to the disability community, she has opposed bills such as the ADA Education and Reform Act on the grounds it would impose undue requirements on individuals with disabilities before they could sue businesses for violating accessibility laws. She believed strongly that the bill would dismantle the ADA and voiced "strong opposition to this harmful legislation."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard supports the legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes. She has stated that she has never consumed marijuana, but "believe(s) firmly in every person's freedom to make their own choices", and calls the drug "far less harmful and dangerous than alcohol". Gabbard is also an advocate for the medical use of cannabis (particularly as an alternative to opioid painkillers), stating: "The fact that marijuana's still a Schedule I drug is unacceptable in the harm that it is causing to the people of our country."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has introduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act and the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act to legalize cannabis at the federal level. She has also cosponsored numerous other cannabis-related measures including the Marijuana Justice Act. 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. It passed 336 to 71 as a package, although House leaders did not fight for its inclusion in the final bill.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On January 17, 2020, in response to a voter's question regarding "whether her plan to end the war on drugs centered on more harm reduction and treatment or if it involved moving to legalize and regulate narcotics so that you're no longer seeing tainted drugs on the street ... and involvement in the black market", Gabbard answered “all of the above”. Gabbard expressed support for the Portugal model of decriminalizing and regulating all drugs, saying that "the fears and the myths and the stigma about taking that step should be set aside." Gabbard allegedly planned on introducing legislation to decriminalize drug possession at the federal level, until the COVID-19 pandemic came.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has advocated for financial reform since first running for Congress, including such measures as restoring the Glass-Steagall Act, breaking up too-big-to-fail banks, strengthening protections against predatory lending practices, increasing capital requirements for the nation's largest banks, and banning naked credit default swaps.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2012, during her first campaign for Congress, Gabbard critiqued JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon "and an army of Wall Street lobbyists" for having "anchored down" the process of implementing Dodd-Frank legislation "to the point that half of the modest regulations included in it aren’t even in place today, including the Volcker Rule, which limits risky trading behavior." She also called for breaking up big banks (noting that the five largest control 56 percent of the U.S. economy) and for preventing banks "from becoming too big and too precarious to ever again endanger our livelihoods as they did in 2008, and as they continue to do today."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2015, in a written statement to President Obama regarding his State of the Union message, wrote "America also needs true Wall Street reform, which begins with reinstating Glass-Steagall. The financial stability of our nation depends on serious efforts to prevent Wall Street from making risky investments at taxpayer expense. The focus must always be on the needs of Main Street; we must prevent big banks from gambling with the well-being of our nation."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2017, Gabbard co-sponsored a bill to reinstate provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act in order to separate investment banking from commercial banking and prevent the largest banks from engaging in speculative trading. She urged her colleagues to oppose the Financial CHOICE Act, a bill rolling back financial regulations put into effect after the 2008 financial crisis. She also supported a bill to increase the hourly minimum wage to $15 by 2024.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2018, Gabbard voted with the minority against a bill she said worked to undo state-level legislation seeking to curb maximum interest rates on loans, noting that, in Hawaii, which has no such state-level legislation, interest rates could reach an annual percentage rate (APR) of 459 percent.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On July 23, 2019, Gabbard introduced the Wall Street Banker Accountability for Misconduct Act, which would require Wall Street's biggest banks to establish a deferment fund funded annually by senior executives who receive compensation more than 10 times the compensation of the median paid employee of the covered bank, receive total compensation of over $1 million, and receive one of the 100 largest compensation packages, and who have authority to expose more than 0.5% of covered bank's capital. The deferred compensation would be held for 10 years to be used to pay penalties for violations occurring on their watch.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: During the 2019-2020 coronavirus outbreak, Gabbard supported a temporary universal basic income of $1000 per month. Another former candidate in the 2020 presidential election campaign, Andrew Yang, had supported the universal basic income.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard supports making community college tuition free for all Americans while making all four-year colleges tuition free for students with an annual family income of $125,000 or less. The tuition would be funded by a new tax on trading stocks and bonds.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard received the Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter's endorsement in the 2012 Democratic primary election for Congress and in her 2014 reelection campaign.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In December 2016, Gabbard, along with approximately 2,000 U.S. military veterans dubbed "The Veterans Stand for Standing Rock," traveled to North Dakota to join the protests against the construction of the final leg of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Indian Reservations.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In September 2017, Gabbard introduced the Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act ("OFF Act") as legislation seeking to transition the United States to clean renewable energy. The bill would require electric utilities to transition to 80% renewable energy resources by 2027 and 100% renewable by 2035, while setting similar vehicle emission standards goals and banning hydraulic fracturing.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In November 2018, Gabbard spoke in favor of a Green New Deal, which was at the time a draft resolution to task a special House committee with coming up with legislation to eliminate fossil fuel use from the economy within a decade. In February 2019, she expressed concerns about the vagueness of the version of the Green New Deal proposed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey, saying "I do not support 'leaving the door open' to nuclear power unless and until there is a permanent solution to the problem of nuclear waste," and so did not co-sponsor the legislation.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: 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. In July 2020, she called for "fresh eyes" to ensure a more independent assessment of the waste site's safety.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard co-sponsored the Family Act legislation which would entitle employees to take up to 60 days of paid, job-protected leave to care for a newborn child or to care for any family member for medical reasons. She advocates for universal basic income which would allow one parent to either provide childcare themselves at home or to afford to pay for childcare. She also advocates for expanding pre-kindergarten education to all Americans.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In her full announcement regarding her exodus from the Democratic Party, Gabbard stated, "Today's Democratic Party does not believe in our constitutionally protected right of free speech. Fostering freedom of thought and diversity of expression is the very foundation of any flourishing democracy." She also criticized the Biden Administration's creation of a Disinformation Governance Board, referring to it as a "Ministry of Truth."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard's views on gun control and gun owners' rights have varied through the course of her political career.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: During her time in Congress and throughout her presidential campaign, Gabbard supported a common rifle weapons ban and universal background checks. She received an F-rating from the NRA, a 0% rating by the Hawaii Rifle Association and a 100% rating by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence for her time in Congress.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Following her retirement from Congress, Gabbard's positions on gun control and gun owners' rights have slightly shifted to the right.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has stated that she is a supporter of the Second Amendment. Gabbard says she believes the Second Amendment is necessary so citizens can "defend themselves and our loved ones, and to serve as a check on a tyrannical government seeking to take away our God-given freedoms."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard expressed approval with the Supreme Court's ruling in "New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen", which held that an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home is protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard supports a universal health care plan called "Single Payer Plus". Her plan is loosely modeled after Australia's healthcare system. In 2017, she co-sponsored the Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act to create a national health insurance program that covers uninsured as well as underinsured people; allows for private insurance supplemental to but not duplicative of benefits provided under the program; and paid for in part by raising taxes on the wealthy and taxing financial transactions. Gabbard called the Republican-sponsored American Health Care Act of 2017 "really a handout to insurance and pharmaceutical companies that will further exacerbate the burden on American families."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In Gabbard's view, "If you look at other countries in the world who have universal health care, every one of them has some form of a role for private insurance." In 2019, she cosponsored House Resolution 1384, Medicare for All Act of 2019, a bill that would allow private insurance.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has pushed to reinstate Medicaid eligibility for people from the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau who are working and living in the United States.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2017, Gabbard cosponsored and worked toward passing the Preventing Diabetes in Medicare Act to extend Medicare medical nutrition therapy services to those with pre-diabetes or risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes so as to "help identify and treat diabetes earlier and more effectively."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2019, Gabbard cosponsored the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act to allow wholesale distributors, pharmacies, and individuals to import affordable and safe drugs; the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act to allow the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies under Medicare Part D; and the Prescription Drug Price Relief Act to end government-granted monopolies for manufacturers that charge drug prices higher than the median prices at which the drugs are available in other countries.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard proposes addressing the housing crisis by bipartisan efforts to use zoning and public–private partnerships between local governments and private developers to quickly increase the amount and reduce the price of available housing.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard differs from other Democrats on some aspects of immigration. She sees the "root cause of mass immigration on our southern border" as being the "history of US military intervention in Latin America that left countries destroyed." She continues: "Before we talk about a wall, we need to end our ongoing threats of intervention – this time in Venezuela." Gabbard voted with Congressional Republicans in favor of "extreme vetting" of Iraqi and Syrian refugees. Gabbard has also stated "I don’t support open borders. Without secure borders, we don’t really have a country” and that it is a "fair" criticism that other Democratic politicians had misguidedly embraced the idea of open borders. In 2015, Gabbard called on the US government to give priority to persecuted minority refugees in the Middle East, such as Christians and Yazidis. In response to Trump's proposals to build a border wall with Mexico, Gabbard stated that she prefers "using high-tech surveillance at the border rather than physical wall" but that "in some places, it may make sense to have a wall or some sort of physical barrier" but would rely on experts to clarify whether extensions of physical barriers are needed. Gabbard has also called for a temporary suspension of the Visa Waiver Program for European passport holders, citing concerns about security and terrorism following the influx of Syrian refugees into Germany, until the threat of a potential terrorist attack is removed. However, Gabbard has also spoken in favor of easing restrictions on granting temporary work visas to immigrants, increasing skilled immigration, creating a simplified path to citizenship for illegal and undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes, granting citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants and reinstating DACA. Gabbard also believes that immigrants should be assessed as individuals and for what they can contribute rather than by their nationality and background. During the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Gabbard stated "we can and should have both secure borders as well as humane immigration policies." She has also called for immigration reform, describing the system as "broken."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2013, Gabbard sponsored legislation to require GMO labeling. In 2015, she criticized the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, saying it "makes a mockery of transparency and leaves U.S. consumers in the dark;" and that it merely creates "an illusion of transparency, making things more difficult for consumers, not easier." In 2016, she voted against a GMO-labeling bill, saying it was too weak. In early February 2019, she "courageously criticized Monsanto for falsifying pesticide safety studies" when she tweeted that Monsanto manufactured "'scientific studies' to influence the EPA while destroying small farmers," and unleashed "the scourge of Roundup."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard was a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus, and during the 116th Congress had an 84% record in Congress for pro-LGBT legislation from the Human Rights Campaign, a group that advocates for LGBT rights. During the 115th Congress, she had a 100% record. Gabbard's position on LGBT issues has changed over the course of her lifetime.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard supported her father's campaign to amend the Constitution of Hawaii to give lawmakers the power to limit marriage to same-sex couples. The amendment was overwhelmingly approved by voters in a referendum. As a Hawaii state legislator in 2004, Gabbard opposed and protested against Hawaii House Bill 1024, which would have established legal parity between same-sex couples in civil unions and married straight couples. The bill was defeated in the House. Also in 2004, Gabbard opposed a House resolution to study the demographics and needs of LGBT students saying that a study asking students questions about their sexuality would be a violation of their privacy.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: After two deployments with the Hawaii Army National Guard to Iraq in 2004 and Kuwait in 2008, Gabbard said in 2011 that her stance on LGBT issues was changed by her experience in the military "with LGBTQ service members both here at home and while deployed" as well as seeing "the destructive effect of having governments … act as moral arbiters for their people." In 2012, Gabbard apologized for what David Knowles called "anti-gay advocacy".


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Since 2013, Gabbard has been a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus during her first, third, and fourth terms in Congress. As Congresswoman, Gabbard co-sponsored pro-LGBT legislation, signed an amicus brief supporting Edith Windsor's challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, and supported the Equality Act to protect LGBT individuals, and other efforts to promote LGBT equality, including supporting the Restore Honor to Service Members Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Equality for All Resolution. During a 2016 interview, while saying that her opinions on gay rights as a policy have changed, her personal views on gay people had not. In 2019, after launching her presidential campaign, she apologized again for her past anti-gay policy positions.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2020, Gabbard signaled a shift in her position on transgender issues after introducing the Protect Women in Sports Act of 2020 to the U.S. House of Representatives, which would amend Title IX protections to prohibit transgender females from participating in women's athletics. In a statement, Gabbard claimed that the legislation is meant to protect "Title IX’s original intent which was based on the general biological distinction between men and women athletes based on sex.”


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On April 4, 2022, Gabbard endorsed Florida House Bill 1557, popularly dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" 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 or schools to a captive audience". She also suggested the bill should apply to all grades.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In May 2016, Gabbard, citing a "Los Angeles Times" investigation into the manufacturer of OxyContin, called drug company marketing of painkillers "the root cause of the problems", as they were selling Oxycontin as a 12-hour drug while it wore off early in many patients, increasing the risk of addiction.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In May 2018 Gabbard, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Representatives Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal introduced The Opioid Crisis Accountability Act of 2018 "to penalize drug companies found to be profiting from the opioid epidemic [targeting] companies that engage in false marketing or distribution of opioids."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has criticized the "defund the police" movement for "demonizing law enforcement." She has argued that many prosecutors and defense attorneys are too lenient on criminals at the expense of law-abiding citizens.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On March 7, 2019, Gabbard told "BuzzFeed News" "If a consenting adult wants to engage in sex work, that is their right, and it should not be a crime." She continued, "All people should have autonomy over their bodies and their labor." A spokesperson for her presidential campaign cited that comment later that month and added, "She believes it should be decriminalized, and that is the action we would take on the federal level."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In February 2020, she echoed the same words in a statement to "Reason". The sex worker advocacy group "Decriminalize Sex Work" gave her a grade of A− on sex work decriminalization, making her only presidential candidate to get a score above a B−.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: According to "Politico", Gabbard supports eliminating corporate income tax breaks for "offshoring", but has taken no positions on capital gains taxes, tax credits, Wall Street taxes, and wealth taxes.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard has called for breaking up "big tech companies" who, together with "overreaching intel agencies", she says "take away our civil liberties and freedoms in the name of national security and corporate greed". She supports net neutrality, and has criticized Facebook for banning users. In Gabbard's lawsuit against Google for temporarily suspending her campaign's advertisement account, her lawyers contended that Google should be considered a "state actor" and that Google's program to verify election ads amounts to a regulation of political speech, thereby violating the First Amendment.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2014, Gabbard introduced the Access to Care and Treatment Now for Veterans Act to allow veterans not getting timely healthcare from the VA to get care from non-VA medical providers. This bill was incorporated into the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act passed later that year.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: On March 19, 2015, Gabbard and Scott Perry (R-Pa.) launched a new Congressional caucus dedicated to helping post-9/11 veterans in transition to civilian life and improve services for veterans such as reducing the backlog in Veteran Affairs disability claims, and promoting education, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Also in 2015, Gabbard introduced legislation with Chris Stewart (UT-02) to expand veterans’ healthcare options by allowing them to pause their TRICARE benefits to participate in an employer's Health Savings Account (HSA) program.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2016, Gabbard worked successfully with John Kline (R-MN) to amend the National Defense Authorization Act to allow military retirees living more than 100 miles from a military treatment facility to re-enroll in TRICARE Prime, reversing a 2013 policy that eliminated such access.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In 2017, Gabbard, as co-chair of the Post 9/11 Veterans Caucus helped introduce the Forever GI Bill to extend and improve the GI Bill benefits granted to veterans, surviving spouses, and dependents. The bill passed with bipartisan support.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: In January 2019, together with Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), she introduced the Retired Pay Restoration Act to ensure disabled veterans receiving 40 percent or lower rates of service-connected disability would receive both their military pension as well as Veterans Affairs’ disability compensation or combat-related special pay. As founder and co-chair of the Post-9/11 Veterans Caucus, she said: "Retirement benefits and disability benefits are two different things, and one should not be counted against the other" and that this bipartisan legislation will "ensure that our veterans receive the benefits they’ve earned and deserve."


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard says, addressing sexual harassment at the workplace requires leadership to bring about a culture shift in the private and public sectors. She was an original cosponsor of the Military Justice Improvement Act to transfer decision-making in military sexual assault cases from the chain of command to experienced trial counsel to determine the appropriate trial path to pursue.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: She has also cosponsored: the Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Elimination Act to that ensure congressional perpetrators are held personally and financially accountable for sexual harassment abuses of power by ending taxpayer-funded harassment settlements and requiring full reimbursement to the Treasury for past settlements; the Power Act which requires every state's U.S. attorney to promote and expand pro-bono legal services, specifically for domestic violence survivors; and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2018 to revise and reauthorize various programs and activities to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.


title: Political positions of Tulsi Gabbard

text: Gabbard calls for a concerted effort to encourage the professional development and opportunities of women in the workplace, government and military. She opposes policies that would dictate the demographics of corporate boards.