Newark Mayor Cory Brooker "A Gay Hater” 1992

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Newark Mayor Cory Booker, an outspoken advocate for gay rights, penned a column in college about overcoming the "disgust and latent hostility" he once felt toward gay people.

In a piece titled "Pointing the finger at gays," Booker, then a student at Stanford University, wrote that he had "hated gays" though he was able to feign acceptance until a meeting with a gay peer counselor opened his eyes to the struggle for acceptance shared by gays and his black grandparents.

"While hate is a four-letter word I never would have admitted to, the sentiment clandestinely pervaded my every interaction with homosexuals," Booker wrote in the April, 8, 1992 edition of theStanford Daily.

Booker, now a prominent Democrat considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2014, was a columnist for paper, which reprinted the piece Wednesday as part of a recurring series of archived opinion pieces.

"I still remember how my brow would often unconsciously furrow when I was with gays as thoughts would flash in my mind, 'What sinners I am amongst' or "How unnatural these people are.'" Booker wrote.

Those views changed after Booker met a gay counselor at The Bridge, Stanford's peer counseling group, during his freshman year.