LGBT conservatism

LGBT conservatism refers to a socio-political movement which embraces and promotes the ideology of conservatism within an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) context. Gay conservatives may also refer to lesbian or gay persons with conservative political views.

The number of openly LGBT advocates for conservative policies has only become increasingly apparent since the advent of the modern LGBT civil rights movement in the 1970s, while many more LGBT conservatives remain closeted in countries where other socially conservative politicians have led the most organized opposition to LGBT civil rights efforts. The situation and ideology for LGBT conservatives varies by each country's social and political LGBT rights climate.

United States

The first organized gay conservative political advocacy organization, the Log Cabin Republicans, was founded in 1977 to represent the minority of Republicans who opposed the Briggs Initiative. Since then, while retaining loyalty to most of the Republican party's platform regarding the economy and defense, the LCR organization has largely diverged from the socially conservative wing of the party due to the latter's open opposition to LGBT civil rights.

Despite such a divergence, the LGBT conservative movement has been derided by decidedly liberal or progressive LGBT outlets for its association with the Republican party because of the dominance of socially conservative constituents. The movement's leading constituents, during or after their terms in political office or other positions of influence, have been roundly criticized for having supported anti-LGBT initiatives prior to having come out of the closet; in their defense, many of these individuals admit to initial dishonesty or confusion regarding their own sexual orientations or gender identities, often referring to upbringing by, and potential reprisal from family members and colleagues as the two most outstanding reasons for not addressing their own sexuality.

United Kingdom

The first LGBT 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 organised often organised using its Facebook Groups and pages and attends Vigils and LGBT 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 6 May 2010 General Election. There are now at least 12 openly Gay and Lesbian Conservative MPs in parliament.

LGBTory works to promote LGBT 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.

Canada

No prominent national group currently exists to promote LGBT conservatism in Canada, although small groups exist locally in some Canadian cities or as discussion forums on the Internet.

Openly gay political figures such as Scott Brison, Lorne Mayencourt and Jaime Watt have been associated with conservative parties at the provincial or federal levels, Keith Norton and Heward Grafftey came out as gay after their careers as politicians had ended, and Richard Hatfield was officially outed as gay after his death. Most such figures, however, have been Red Tories, a moderate or even progressive faction within Canadian conservatism, rather than conventionally conservative "Blue" Tories; Brison, in fact, quit the Progressive Conservatives to join the Liberals after the PCs merged with the more conventionally right-wing Canadian Alliance to form the current Conservative Party.

Netherlands and the Low countries

Much of the Dutch right wing (including figures such as Geert Wilders) has evolved to include LGBT 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.

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 centre-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 organisation is open to everyone regardless of sexual orientation that want to work with LGBT political issues.

Organizations

Some organizations include:

• GayLib - linked to Union for a Popular Movement (France)
• GOProud — linked to the Republican Party (United States)
• LGBTory — linked to the Conservative Party (United Kingdom)
• LGBTQ* in UKIP — linked to the UK Independence Party (United Kingdom)
• Log Cabin Republicans — linked to the Republican Party (United States)
• LSU - Lesben und Schwule in der Union — linked to the CDU/CSU (Germany)
• Open Moderates — linked to the Moderate Party (Sweden)