LGBTory is a Canadian LGBT conservative organization. The group was established in 2015, as an advocacy group for LGBT supporters of the
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...
and provincial conservative parties. While officially open to all LGBT supporters of conservative parties across Canada, the group was founded in Toronto, Ontario by people associated with the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario who wanted to be represented in the
Toronto Pride Parade
Pride Toronto is an annual event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in June each year. A celebration of the diversity of the LGBT community in the Greater Toronto Area, it is one of the largest organized gay pride festivals in the world, fea ...
. The name was inspired by the similar British conservative group LGBTory, now called LGBT+ Conservatives, which gave permission to use the name.
Pride parade
A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
Toronto Sun
The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Postmedia Place i ...
'', June 28, 2015.
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...
Jack MacLaren
Jack MacLaren (born ) is a Canadian former politician who represented the eastern Ontario riding of Carleton—Mississippi Mills in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2011 to 2018. Originally elected as a member of the Progressive Conservat ...
and party president
Richard Ciano
Richard Ciano is the former president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
.
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
talk radio host Nick Vandergragt subsequently criticized MacLeod on his CFRA talk show for her participation, although both MacLeod and MacLaren repudiated Vandergragt's comments."Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod rejects anti-Pride comments from Ottawa radio host" ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', June 29, 2015.
At
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...
'', August 21, 2015. The petition asserted that "by not distancing themselves from politicians who are actively dismantling our rights," the group was participating in "bad faith"; it also claimed that by using the T in the LGBT initialism to stand for "Tory", the group was erasing transgender identities and issues. The group was not banned from the parade, and marched without further incident. MacLeod was again among the marchers, although no other elected MPs or MPPs joined her.
LGBTory did not directly organize a contingent at
Vancouver Pride
The Vancouver Pride Parade and Festival is an annual LGBT Pride event, held each year in Vancouver, British Columbia, to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. It is run by the Vancouver Pride Society (VPS), a ...
, although the Conservative Party's federal electoral district association in Vancouver Centre applied to participate but then withdrew. The withdrawal was tied to conflicting claims about whether the group had sought an exemption from having to sign a pledge committing participating groups to respect and defend transgender equality rights.
On August 27, 2015, the cross-partisan advocacy group