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LGBTQ conservatism

Movement within conservatism among LGBTQ people From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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This article is about conservative politics among LGBTQ people. For the LGBTQ wing of the British Conservative Party, see LGBT+ Conservatives.

LGBTQ conservatism refers to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) individuals with conservative political views.

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History

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See also: LGBTQ conservatism in the United States § History

Before the Stonewall riots

France

In 1791, Louis-Michel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau presented a new criminal code to the National Constituent Assembly.[1] The code did not list crimes associated with homosexuality, thereby removing criminal penalties for those acts.

In 1810, a new criminal code was issued under Napoleon which continued to exclude provisions criminalizing homosexuality.

Portugal

In 1852, under the government of the Duke of Saldanha, a Cartista, same-sex sexual intercourse was legalized throughout Portugal.[2]

Germany

On 25 June 1969, shortly before the end of a Christian Democratic Union-Social Democratic Party coalition government led by Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Paragraph 175, which criminalized male same-sex sexual intercourse, was amended. "Qualified" offenses—sexual acts with a male under 21, homosexual prostitution, and exploitation of a relationship of dependency—remained.

United Kingdom

On 24 February 1954, Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated during a Cabinet meeting that the Conservative Party would not support making laws more lenient toward homosexual men, though he suggested an inquiry and limited press reporting of such cases.[3]

In 1957, following increasing prosecutions, the Conservative government commissioned the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (Wolfenden Committee). Its report recommended decriminalizing consensual homosexual acts between adults in private and strengthening laws against public sexual conduct and street prostitution.[4]

In May 1965, Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran introduced a bill in the House of Lords to decriminalize male same-sex sexual intercourse in England and Wales. Amendments added a more restrictive standard of privacy than for heterosexual behavior, including prohibitions on acts involving more than two people or occurring in public lavatories. The bill later entered the House of Commons under closeted homosexual Conservative MP Humphrey Berkeley and, after Berkeley lost his seat in the 1966 United Kingdom general election, was taken up by Labour Party MP Leo Abse.[4]

The Sexual Offences Act 1967 passed under a Labour government, partially decriminalizing consensual same-sex acts between adults in private in England and Wales. A minority of Conservative MPs voted in favor, including future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[5]

In 2007, Brian Coleman wrote that London police in the mid-1950s were allegedly aware of future Prime Minister Edward Heath's involvement in cottaging and warned him due to potential career impact. Coleman also asserted that gay men held significant positions within the London Conservative Party during that era.[6]

Robert Boothby, a Conservative politician, was known within political circles to be homosexual.[4]

Argentina

In 1887, during the period known as the Conservative Republic (Spanish: República Conservadora), same-sex sexual intercourse was legalized throughout Argentina.[7]

After the Stonewall riots

United Kingdom

In 1975, the Conservative Group for Homosexual Equality (CGHE) was founded by Peter Walter Campbell.[8]

In 1980, during the First Thatcher ministry, the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 was enacted, legalizing same-sex sexual intercourse in Scotland.

In 1991, the CGHE reformed at the Conservative Party Conference as the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality (TORCHE) and remained active until its disbandment in 2004.[9]

In 2007, Brian Coleman wrote in the New Statesman that many gay politicians in the Conservative Party became active during the Thatcher era.[10]

On 5 October 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron stated at a Conservative Party conference that he supported same-sex marriage.[11]

During the passage of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013, voting among Conservative MPs was divided.[12][13][14][15]

Ireland

On 24 June 2004, Fine Gael proposed legal recognition of civil partnerships for opposite-sex and same-sex couples, the first Irish political party to do so.[16]

In November 2004, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern stated that equality for couples should be addressed while noting that legalizing same-sex marriage remained distant.[17]

During the 2004 Irish presidential election, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Progressive Democrats expressed support for forms of recognition for same-sex couples.

During the 2007 Irish general election, the manifestos of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Progressive Democrats supported civil unions for same-sex couples, and all three parties advertised in Gay Community News.

In 2010, Ógra Fianna Fáil announced support for same-sex marriage. In July 2011, Young Fine Gael publicly supported same-sex marriage.[18]

On 3 March 2012, Fianna Fáil endorsed same-sex marriage.[19] On 5 November 2013, Fine Gael formally supported same-sex marriage.[20]

On 22 May 2015, the Thirty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of Ireland (Marriage Equality) was approved by referendum. The referendum was held under a Fine Gael–Labour coalition government.

Iraq

On 21 April 2003, following the removal of the Ba'athist government, the Coalition Provisional Authority reinstated a revised 1988 penal code, resulting in the legalization of same-sex sexual intercourse.

Botswana

In 2010, the government led by the Botswana Democratic Party amended the Employment Act to prohibit dismissal on the basis of sexual orientation or HIV status.[21]

Germany

In April 2023, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria endorsed same-sex marriage.[22][23] In May 2024, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany expressed support for same-sex marriage.[24][25][26]

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By country

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Australia

See also: Liberal Pride

Brazil

Clodovil Hernandes, a member of the Christian Labour Party and later the Party of the Republic, is regarded as the first openly gay member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. He served until his death in 2009.

On January 16, 2017, Marcelo Crivella, mayor of Rio de Janeiro, appointed Nélio Georgini, an openly gay evangelical conservative, to lead the city’s LGBTQ council.[27]

In the 2018 Brazilian presidential runoff, according to Datafolha, 30% of LGBTQ voters supported right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro. The significant share of LGBTQ support for Bolsonaro drew attention in Brazilian media due to his socially conservative, anti-LGBTQ positions.[28][29]

Canada

LGBTory was established in 2015 as an organization for LGBTQ supporters of the Conservative Party of Canada and provincial conservative parties. Prior to its formation, smaller informal groups existed in some Canadian cities and online.

Several openly gay figures have been associated with conservative parties at the federal or provincial level, including Scott Brison and Lorne Mayencourt. Other politicians, such as Keith Norton, Phil Gillies, and Heward Grafftey, disclosed their sexual orientation after leaving office, while Richard Hatfield was publicly identified as gay posthumously.[30] Many of these individuals have been associated with the Red Tory tradition, a moderate to progressive strand of Canadian conservatism. Brison left the Progressive Conservative Party to join the Liberal Party after the PCs merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada.

In 2015, LGBTory organized the first official participation by federal Conservative MPs and Ontario Progressive Conservative MPPs in Toronto's Pride parade.[31] In 2016, interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose became the first leader of the federal party to march in the Toronto Pride Parade, joined by other MPs.

In 2019, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Deputy Premier Christine Elliott, and cabinet ministers Caroline Mulroney and Stephen Lecce marched in the York Region Pride Parade, marking the first time a sitting conservative Ontario premier participated in a Pride event. Eric Duncan became the first openly gay Conservative MP elected in 2019, and Melissa Lantsman became the first openly lesbian Conservative MP elected in 2021.

Chile

In 2014, the doctrinal council of the conservative National Renewal voted 72.3% to reject a proposal that would have advocated limiting marriage and adoption to heterosexual couples.[32]

European Union

Members of the European Parliament from across the political spectrum, including conservatives, have formed the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights.

Denmark

The previous leader of the Conservative People's Party in Denmark, Søren Pape Poulsen, was openly gay.[33]

France

A 2013 IFOP survey found that the political preferences of LGBTQ people in France were broadly similar to those of the general population.

More information Affiliation, % of French LGBTQ people ...

Germany

In Germany the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) since 2020 and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) in Bavaria since 2023 support Same-sex marriages. In 2020, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) published a political video supporting same-sex marriage and families,[35] and in 2023 the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) adopted a party platform supporting same-sex marriage.[36][37] As of 2023, the right wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) remains the largest party opposed to same-sex marriage and supports only civil partnerships. Conversely, the leader of the AfD Alice Weidel is an open lesbian and lives in a civil partnership with two children.[38][39][40]

Netherlands

Much of the Dutch right wing (including figures such as Geert Wilders) has evolved to include LGBTQ rights platforms which do not conflict with the current status quo but also embrace an increased perturbation to supposed threats from minority religions (especially Islam) which, in their view, threaten to upend the vestiges of the liberalism and tolerance which has been associated with the Dutch social climate.

The former political party the Pim Fortuyn List supported LGBTQ rights, and its leader and namesake Pim Fortuyn was openly gay.

Russia

See also: Gays for Putin!

Sweden

The Open Moderates is the LGBT-organisation of the Moderate Party in Sweden. The Open Moderates is an organization for everyone that shares the values of the Moderate Party and who believe that LGBT-issues are important political issues to work with from a center-right perspective.

The origin of the Open Moderates is the Stockholm-based club "Gay Moderates" that was formed already in the late 1970s. That club had mostly social activities and it was active upon until the mid-1990s. A new generation took over and reorganized the Gay Moderates as a new more political network to lobby the Moderate Party. In 2003 the name was changed to the current Open Moderates to signal that the organization is open to everyone regardless of sexual orientation that want to work with LGBTQ political issues.

In recent years, the national conservative Sweden Democrats party has softened its stance on LGBTQ rights and same-sex parenting with party leader Jimmie Åkesson suggesting in 2018 that the party would rewrite its program for the first time to include LGBTQ related issues. One of the SD's legislators and spokesmen Bo Broman is homosexual.

The conservative Citizens' Coalition leader Ilan Sadé is openly gay.[41]

United Kingdom

In April 2015, PinkNews found 26% of British LGBTQ people supported the Conservative and Unionist Party, a 5% increase from the last election in 2010, 26% support the Labour Party, a 2% decrease from the last election in 2010, 19% support the Liberal Democrats, a 21% decrease from the last election in 2010, 20% support the Green Party of England and Wales/Scottish Green Party/Green Party in Northern Ireland, a 16% increase from the last election in 2010, and 2% supported the UK Independence Party. This is the first time in the 10 years that PinkNews has polled the LGBTQ community that the Conservatives have led the survey of voting intentions.[42]

The first LGBTQ Conservative group was called CGHE (Conservative Group for Homosexual Equality). That group was reconstituted at the Conservative party Conference in 1991 and was renamed TORCHE (the Tory Campaign for Homosexual Equality). This group was active until 2003. Some years later, LGBTory was formed. LGBTory has an active membership often organized using its Facebook groups and pages and attends vigils and LGBTQ Pride events across the UK including Pride London, Pride Scotia, Leeds Pride, Manchester Pride, Doncaster Pride and Brighton Pride.

LGBTory campaigned in seats throughout the campaign for the May 6, 2010, general election. There are now at least 12 openly gay and lesbian Conservative MPs in Parliament.

LGBTory, now[when?] renamed to LGBT+ Conservatives, works to promote LGBTQ equality within the Conservative Party and generally across the UK, actively campaigning against the Gay Blood Ban and for marriage equality, regardless of sexuality or gender identity.[citation needed]

The UK Independence Party has an officially recognized LGBTQ in UKIP campaigning group which is active on the social media sites Twitter and Facebook. It has been represented at the party's annual conference.[43] Peter Whittle of the UKIP was the only LGBTQ candidate in the 2016 London Assembly election; afterwards, he was selected as the UKIP's deputy leader.

United States

Main article: LGBTQ conservatism in the United States
See also: Gays for Trump
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Notable LGBTQ conservatives

Lesbian

Gay men

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Transgender

List of organizations

Some organizations include:

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See also

References

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