Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley announced over a year ago she was seeking to become the next United States President. A lot of people have seen her as a better alternative to fellow candidate and former president Donald Trump, but does her record prove that to be true?
Qnotes has looked into Haley’s legislative record regarding LGBTQ+ issues, her relationship to members of the queer community and more. Here is what we found.
Who is Nikki Haley?
Born as Nimarata Randhawa, Haley is the daughter of Punjabi Indian immigrants who came to the United States and opened what became a successful gift and clothing business called Exotica International.
Haley ran for her first office in 2004 against the longest-serving legislator in the South Carolina Statehouse at the time, Larry Koon, and beat him 55 percent to 45 percent in a runoff election. She became the first woman of Indian descent to hold office in South Carolina and even cited Hillary Clinton as her inspiration for running for office.
“She said that when it comes to women running for office, there will be everybody that tells you why you shouldn’t, but that’s all the reasons why we need you to do it, and I walked out of there thinking, ‘That’s it. I’m running for office,’” Haley recounted.
She was elected as South Carolina’s governor in 2010 and served in that position until her second term ran out in early 2017. Trump appointed Haley as an ambassador to the United Nations, as she has an extensive educational background regarding international policy and foreign relations.
Is Haley an ally to queer Americans?
Haley’s political history surrounding the LGBTQ+ community is rather confusing.
According to GLAAD, the former South Carolina Governor falsely stated trans girls in sports contribute to teenage suicide ideation among women, going as far to say “Across the sporting world, the game is being rigged against women and in favor of biological men.”
However, shortly after North Carolina passed House Bill 2 barring trans people from using the bathroom of their gender identity, Haley was questioned if she would support something similar in South Carolina.
“I don’t believe it’s necessary,” she said at the time. “There’s not one instance that I’m aware of when we look at our situation we’re hearing of anybody’s religious liberties being violated. And we’re not hearing any citizens that are being violated in terms of freedoms. Like it or not, South Carolina is doing really well when it comes to respect and when it comes to kindness and when it comes to acceptance. Faithful to apply it’s not, I beg to differ. While other states are having this battle, this is not a battle that we’ve seen as needed in South Carolina.”
Despite Haley’s insistence that South Carolina had no need for legislation, since that time, other elected officials have introduced H-4624, an anti-trans youth bill that does just what she said the state didn’t need. It passed the House, then it went to the Senate, where it has remained since January 18 in the Committee on Medical Affairs.
Haley historically opposed same-sex marriage and the federal recognition of same-sex unions, saying it was a matter for the states to decide. Additionally, she misgendered and disparaged transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who faced criticism from right-leaning media and politicians for sharing her journey through her transition.
She commented semi-positively on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits instruction on gender identity and sexuality in classrooms across the state.
“When I was in school, you didn’t have sex ed[ucation] until seventh grade. Even then, your parents had to sign whether you could take the class,” Haley told Fox News. “We should not be talking to kids in elementary school about gender, period. Schools need to be teaching reading and math and science. They don’t need to be teaching whether they think you’re a boy or a girl.”
Haley as a Trump critic
While Haley did serve as an ambassador to the United Nations during Trump’s administration, she left her position around a year after she was appointed. Since then, she’s been one of the biggest critics of the former president both behind the scenes and publicly.
During an interview with Politico magazine in February 2021, she said that she was disgusted by the way Trump behaved towards former vice president Mike Pence during the capital riot, and went a decisive step further, announcing that the possibility of the former president running for office again in the future was something that shouldn’t happen.
“We need to acknowledge that he let us down,” she told Politico. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have and we shouldn’t have followed him and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t ever let that happen again.”
Haley has gone as far to say Trump isn’t qualified for the job, saying he lacks the respect and maturity the office of President requires after the former president made a jab at Haley’s husband, who served in the military.
“He showed that with that kind of disrespect for the military, he’s not qualified to be the president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them,” she said in a post on Twitter/X.
“He’s never had to fight for survival like so many of them sacrifice to do … The most harm he’s ever come across is whether a golf ball hits him on a golf cart.”