![]() Hugin was a leader with the club’s alumni board at the time. He also said he regretted his role in the Tiger Inn court battle to remain all-male in the 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the use of the inflammatory “politically correct fascism” remark. ![]() I now believe they are right.”ĭuring Thursday’s roundtable, Hugin cited gay marriage and women in the military as two issues where his views had changed. “For many years, these millions of committed couples have argued that the freedom to marry - their freedom to marry - is a core civil rights issue. “Across our country, the attitudes of millions of Americans have changed on this issue and several states have acted to guarantee the freedom to marry to same-sex couples whose love for each other and life commitment to one another is no different from other couples,” Menendez wrote. ![]() His campaign also pointed to Menendez’s own words in a 2011 opinion piece published by the Star-Ledger, where he described how he changed his mind about gay marriage after supporting the Defense of Marriage Act in the 1990s as a member of the U.S. As Senator, I will be a leader on issues of equality from day one." “Personal growth should be seen as a strength, and more elected officials should embrace and be open to discussing it in their public lives. They had insight at a very early age on the issues of equality and fairness that made me re-evaluate the way I saw the world,” he said in a statement released by his campaign Friday. On this issue I was probably more influenced by my kids than anything else. "I'm proud to say that my views are a lot different than they were 40 years ago. Hugin, who served in the Marine Corps after graduating Princeton and then became a business leader and pharmaceutical company CEO, reiterated that his views have changed since 1976. He is a disgrace and unfit to represent New Jersey and all its vibrant diversity.” “Bob Hugin was in a position to show real leadership on advancing the causes of women and the LGBTQ community and failed, instead perpetuating a culture of discrimination and hate. “This is the real Bob Hugin: anti-women, and anti-gay,” Soliman said. Michael Soliman, Menendez’s campaign chairman, said that statement from Hugin and a later one that described a female student’s discrimination lawsuit against Tiger Inn as “politically correct fascism” should not be dismissed by voters, despite the Republican’s statements that his views have “evolved.” Hugin was quoted in a 1976 Central Jersey Home News article saying students should have a say on the policy change and that if a member of the Tiger Inn was found to be gay, “he wouldn’t last long.” Menendez’s campaign jumped on the issue Friday, pointing both to Tiger Inn’s court battle to keep women from joining, as well as his opposition as a senior student in 1976 in a move by the university to expand its anti-discrimination policies to gays and lesbians in the wake of an incident of vandalism directed at a gay student activist group. Diane Allen and other women leaders focused on the issue of equal pay and women’s rights. “I wish I could have evolved quicker on that,” Hugin said during a Mount Laurel roundtable discussion with former state Sen. Menendez’s campaign pointed to the Republican’s past support for exclusion of women and opposition to discrimination protections for gay students in a news release issued Friday, the day after Hugin voiced regrets about his past as a leader of the Tiger Inn eating club during a time when the group fought to keep women excluded. Bob Menendez’s re-election campaign accused his Republican challenger Bob Hugin of being both anti-women and anti-gay during his years as a student leader of an exclusive, all-male eating club at Princeton University.
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