“People don’t have to like rainbow crosswalks,” replied Elenore Sturko, the member of the B.C. Legislative Assembly for Surrey South, “and I find it troubling that we’re not able to have these conversations.” The Global News interviewer seemed surprised by her blunt response. This was the trap he would catch her in. Sturko, the most prominent lesbian legislator on B.C.’s opposition benches, had just crossed the floor to join the Conservatives, who have surged in the polls to form the primary opposition to the governing NDP. But those Conservatives were “homophobic” and “far-Right,” in the words of their opponent, Premier David Eby.
As the interviewer noted, some of their members had even tweeted that they opposed repainting a small town’s dock in rainbow colours—it was obvious, odious, outrageous homophobia. Or was it? “I don’t actually feel more accepted or less in a community because their dock is rainbow,” continued Sturko, “and if you just box me in as the lesbian of British Columbia, then you’re really doing me an injustice.”
This vignette illustrates a striking yet under-remarked upon trend within Canada’s conservative movement: from its highest echelons to its grassroots, it’s increasingly filled with gay men and women who are changing the conversation around how sexual minorities interact with the broader culture. Our quiet presence within the conservative movement serves as a foil to the more radical queer movement, the priorities of which have extended well beyond same-sex marriage and social acceptance, prompting the beginnings of a backlash from some parents and cultural minority communities.
In this post-2020, post-pandemic, return-to-normalcy moment, where politics and culture seem to be shifting back to the right, gay conservatives have much to contribute. We can help our culture arrive at a more peaceful settlement on core issues of family and culture, averting a destructive swing of the pendulum and allowing gay people and their families to integrate into rather than overturn core traditional institutions.
But first, who are Canada’s gay conservatives?
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