Listen to Tulsi Gabbard’s Anti-Gay ‘Guru’ Ranting Hate Against ‘F****ts’
Tulsi Gabbard’s spiritual “guru” called gay people “perverts” and spewed homophobic slurs when she was involved in his tiny group, an audio recording obtained by the Daily Beast reveals.
Gabbard is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence after a dramatic political switch from left-wing Democratic presidential candidate to MAGA firebrand.
The tape shows how Chris Butler—the leader of the Science of Identity Foundation in which Gabbard was brought up—called homosexuality “abnormal” and “unhealthy and unnatural.” He compared it to having “sex with a fire hydrant” in a recording made a few years before Gabbard first ran for state office–which she did on an anti-gay platform.
Gabbard met senators this week to make the case for her confirmation.
She has faced controversy over her previous views on Russia—including backing a conspiracy theory that U.S. “bioweapons labs” were on Ukrainian soil—and Syria after meeting fallen dictator Bashar al-Assad while she was a Democratic member of Congress.
Republican senators do not yet seem united behind her, The Wall Street Journal reported, saying that when Gabbard met one of them, James Lankford of Oklahoma, she was unable to “clearly articulate” what is entailed by the role of director of national intelligence. Lankford, however, had told NBC News’ Meet the Press last Sunday that he was supporting Gabbard for the DNI role.
Trump used an interview with Time magazine last month to throw his support behind Gabbard, calling her a “really great American.”
Gabbard’s ties to the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF) have gone largely under the radar. And the views and record of its leader, Chris Butler, have been particularly low-profile. The group is an offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement, and describes itself as being Hindu. Butler, who has taken the name Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa and is addressed as “Jagad Guru,” is estimated by some former members to have as many as 10,000 followers. “Jagad Guru” means “teacher of the world” and also that he is the ultimate authority to his followers.
Gabbard, the first Hindu ever elected to Congress, referred to Butler in 2015 as her “guru.” In a 2017 New Yorker profile she said that she had “never heard him say anything hateful, or say anything mean about anybody.”
The Trump campaign said reporting on Gabbard’s ties to Butler was “fomenting Hinduphobia” and “bigoted.” Gabbard did not respond to requests for comment. Butler’s group has hired a crisis PR firm and pointed the Daily Beast to a long statement from Hindu groups which also claimed that reporting on Butler was “Hinduphobia.” The PR firm declined to address the tape and also said, “We will not engage with sensationalist narratives driven by political motives, rather than fair reporting.”
The recording obtained by the Beast is of Butler speaking to followers in the late 1990s, a time when he had become a particularly outspoken opponent of gay rights. Two sources verified it was Butler’s voice. The recording is consistent with other accounts of Butler being an outspoken opponent of gay rights.
None of the sources were able to precisely date the sermon, in which Butler called gay relationships “sinful, ugly, unhealthy and unnatural,” and ranted about “f----ts” and “dy--s.”
At the time of the sermon, Butler was living reclusively in Hawaii, as he does now, and preaching to his followers, one of whom appears to have made the 30-minute recording, which was shared among others. While the sermon started with regular Hindu prayers, it quickly veered into a torrent of anti-gay bile. Hinduism has no unified position on same-sex relationships, with some of its texts suggesting acceptance since ancient times but some scholars and clerics opposing gay rights.
In the lecture, Butler ranted about gay rights in the workplace in acidic terms, which sparked occasional laughter from his followers.
He said: “If you have a day camp and a homosexual wants to come on and be the leader, he’s got an ‘I’m Gay and I’m Proud’ button on, you’re not allowed to express your spiritual convictions or values because there’s now a law, an economic field you’re not allowed to apply your spiritual values.
“You’re not allowed to consider (that) this person’s character has a flaw in it and I don’t want to hire them. He’s not able to control his desires or his senses, the guy’s a pervert, I don’t want him working for me. You should admonish such a person, educate such a person, let such a person know his lifestyle is wrong, it’s sinful.”
Butler said he would tell the gay person, “I don’t think you’re a good role model, in the same way I shouldn’t hire a liar or a thief, I will not hire you because I don’t consider your character to be good enough to be a role model for these people.”
As Butler spoke he got even more angry and said that gay people were promoting “f----tism” and “forcing you” to adopt their way of life. Mocking anti-discriminatory laws, he shouted: ‘You have to go to court and be asked: “Are you prejudiced against fairies? Are you prejudiced against dy---s? Are you prejudiced against people who have sex with fire hydrants?
“You go oh no, I think it’s perfectly normal, I promise. Whatever! If you say it’s quite abnormal for a man to have sex with another man, I think it’s sinful, I think it’s ugly, I think it’s unhealthy, I think it’s unnatural. Why? Is there a law against that? As a matter of fact there is!”
He also veered into sexually explicit denunciations, graphically describing sex acts to attack them as not “normal.”
While it is unknown whether Gabbard heard the homophobic rant, former SIF members said that listening to Butler was a crucial activity for followers—and both Gabbard and her wider family were highly involved throughout the late 1990s.
Gabbard, now 43, was sent to an SIF boarding school in the Philippines in the mid-1990s and later worked in a health shop in Hawaii run by devotees of the group, former members said. One former member told the Daily Beast that the Gabbards had “devoted their lives” to SIF.
Gabbard echoed Butler’s anti-gay views when she ran for the Hawaii state legislature in 2002, telling the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that she and her father Mike, then a former Hawaii state senator, had backed a constitutional amendment to “protect traditional marriage.”
“I’ve learned that real leaders are willing to make personal sacrifices for the common good,” she said of campaigning against same-sex marriage, adding, “I will bring that attitude of public service to the legislature.” She was just 21 and won her race.
Mike Gabbard’s own political group, The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, had been strongly opposed to gay rights and spent more than $100,000 on supporting a state constitutional amendment in 1998 to prevent same-sex couples marrying. In the campaign, it called homosexuality “unhealthy, abnormal behavior that should not be promoted or accepted in society” in an echo of Butler’s comments.
Gabbard has said that her positions on LGBT rights have undergone a significant shift. While serving as the House member for Hawaii’s Second District she supported a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, effectively campaigning against her own previous position.
She also said in 2019 that she “regrets the positions I took in the past” and that she has undergone a “personal journey” on the issue.
Former SIF members told the Beast that her anti-gay marriage campaign in the late 1990s and early 2000s was evidence of the hold the group had over her at the time.
One former member who left SIF described Butler as “narcissistic,” and said of being in the group, “The whole thing is follow our guru and if you don’t, f--- you. He acts like a god and people treat him like that.”
After being approached for comment, Trump transition spokeswoman Alex Henning said: “The repeated attacks that she has sustained from the media and Democrats about her faith and her loyalty to our country are not only false smears, they are bigoted as well.”