OTTAWA, February 13, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genuis is promoting a pro-homosexual strategy for the Conservative Party that critics says is fundamentally harmful to families and the pro-family movement.
Genuis, who has a strong pro-life voting record and is well regarded by many social conservatives, is advising the party to ignore the distinction between homosexual and heterosexual couples and be “pro-family” without defining the nature of the family.
Genuis also asserts the Tory caucus is largely in favour of homosexual “marriage,” although he did not respond to a request from LifeSiteNews to confirm his own position.
“In general, our Conservative MPs would support preserving the civil institution of marriage of all couples, heterosexual and homosexual couples,” Genuis told CTV’s Evan Solomon.
“People might have within their own faith traditions, they might say my religious definition of marriage in this context is something different, but certainly in the context of state recognition I don’t think you would find disagreement on that,” added the Catholic father of four.
Conservatives can be a “pro-family party in a pluralistic society,” Genuis wrote recently in the National Post.
“Our national conversations should focus more on strengthening marriage and family than on debating definitions. Our pluralistic society obviously contains within it different concepts of what marriage and family are,” he noted.
“And we can, in a pluralistic society, still contend that family is the cornerstone of a strong society, without prescribing a single template. We can be a pro-family party in a pluralistic society.”
Same-sex ‘marriage’ a hot topic in leadership race
It’s notable Genuis is pushing this idea in the context of the early days of a Conservative Party leadership race in which the highly charged issue of same-sex “marriage” is front and center.
Leadership hopeful Richard Décarie touched off a media firestorm when he said being “gay” is a choice, prompting some prominent Tories to call for his disqualification on the grounds of alleged bigotry. Décarie proposes that the party return to its pre-2016 internal policy position of supporting the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.
After delegates voted in Vancouver in 2016 to remove the Conservative Party's internal policy position that it supports the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, the party has been officially neutral on the issue of same-sex “marriage.”
Aspiring leadership contender Ontario MP Derek Sloan also faced media censure when he told CTV’s Solomon that the cause of same-sex inclinations is “scientifically unclear.” Sloan says he doesn’t plan to restore traditional marriage but that, as leader, he would allow MPs to debate and bring forward bills on the matter.
This is all the more significant because the media is stoking the debate within the Conservative Party over its position on social conservative issues and particularly whether Andrew Scheer’s personal opposition to same-sex “marriage” was in part to blame for its loss in the fall federal election.
Media reports speculate that John Baird’s confidential internal review of the party’s performance confirms this was indeed the case.
Genuis’ strategy morally off-base, politically wrongheaded
But Jack Fonseca, director of political operations at Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life, pro-family political lobbying group, dismissed this as typical liberal media smoke and mirrors.
He blasted Genuis’ apparent attempt to convince social conservatives in the party to accept homosexual “marriage” as just another family type as morally off-base, illogical, ultimately anti-family — and politically wrongheaded.
The 2005 law passed by Prime Minister Paul Martin declaring same-sex unions as “marriage” cost the Liberals the next election, and the Conservatives subsequently stayed in power three consecutive terms with “the official policy position being support for traditional marriage,” Fonseca told LifeSiteNews.
Moreover, Stephen Harper ultimately won his “one majority because he had established the party as a pro-family force by campaigning on having a free vote on the definition of marriage and restoring traditional marriage,” he said.
More recently, Progressive Consrvative Doug Ford won in liberal Ontario by a landslide on a largely social conservative platform, which included a promise to repeal a sex-ed curriculum that teaches gender ideology as fact — further evidence that supporting traditional families is a winning ballot-box strategy.
But more fundamentally, “abolishing the true definition of marriage” gave LGBTQ activists leverage to implement their agenda in a “spectacular fashion,” which has “directly caused marriage and family to suffer in Canada,” said Fonseca.
One example is that “childless, infertile Christian couples, desperate to form a family of their own, are being told by state-run adoption agencies across Canada that they are unfit to be parents because they oppose homosexuality,” Fonseca said.
Another “direct result of the legalization of homosexual marriage is the current transgender revolution, which is tearing apart families in Canada” — with the British Columbia father now fighting to stop his troubled 15-year-old daughter receiving cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers a tragic case in point, he added.
“How can you say you’re being pro-family if you’re supporting an ideology that is discriminating against Christian couples and barring them from being able to form a family?” questioned Fonseca.
“It’s a stridently anti-family, dangerous and destructive position.”
Canada ‘hedonistic’ not ‘pluralistic’
Fonseca contends that Genuis used the “wrong adjective” when opining that Conservatives can be “a pro-family party in a pluralistic society.”
Canadian society “is not a ‘pluralistic’ society, but rather a ‘hedonistic’ society, that’s heading towards collapse, precisely because it has turned its back on the laws of God,” he told LifeSiteNews.
“To prop up hedonism under the mask of pluralism, as Garnett is doing, is not a conservative approach, nor is it being pro-family,” added Fonseca.
“The job of a true conservative should be to save society from hedonism by doing the long, hard work of explaining why conservative principles, which include faith in God and the natural family, are vital and necessary to the common good and to a stable and prosperous society.”
Campaign Life president Jeff Gunnarson agreed.
“Garnett is accepting that in a pluralistic society, same-sex ‘married’ couples who, presumably, adopt, or have children via IVF, which results in the destruction of embryonic human life, are part and parcel of a good and healthy society,” he told LifeSiteNews.
“If we come to accept that premise, we are ripping out the foundations of a once stable, sustainable, and sacred institution that is the true cornerstone of a well-ordered society,” added Gunnarson.
“It’s a shame that Garnett’s views on traditional true marriage, considering his excellent voting record, are not aligned with true and traditional conservative values nor orthodox Christian teaching.”
Fonseca also rebuked Genuis for dismissing the leadership bid of former Harper deputy chief of staff Décarie, whose campaign chair is former MP Brad Trost.
Genuis tweeted Décarie’s comments were “dumb,” and told CTV’s Solomon his views would not find much support in the party.
Re Decarie’s dumb comments, most people active in the conservative movement have never met or heard of him. He is not the chosen representative of any internal faction. He is simply a person who told the media he’s running – an easy path to notoriety these days. #cdnpoli #cpcldr
— Garnett Genuis (@GarnettGenuis) January 23, 2020
“Stop attacking a social conservative like Richard Décarie,” countered Fonseca.
“Instead of criticizing him, you should be applauding him for taking a stand for family values and for the traditional definition of marriage. And you should thank him for doing what you don’t have the courage to do yourself.”
Moreover, neither Genuis nor leadership contender Ontario MP Marilyn Gladu corrected Solomon when he said erroneously support for same-sex “marriage” is a “Conservative principal,” when the party is neutral on the issue, pointed out Fonseca.
To respectfully express your views, contact:
Garnett Genuis, MP
Sherwood Park/Fort Saskatchewan, AB
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-3611
Email: [email protected]