Aaron Gunn, Andrew Lawton among controversial MPs headed to Ottawa

ANALYSIS: The 2025 federal election winners include multiple people with concerning pasts around LGBTQ2S+ issues

Canada has a new slate of 343 new members of Parliament after this week’s federal election, which results in Mark Carney’s Liberal Party winning the most seats to form a minority government. 

But when it comes to LGBTQ2S+ rights, there are some big question marks headed to Ottawa that we might want to keep an eye out for, including controversial right-wing media personalities, incumbent MPs who voted against the conversion therapy ban and U.S. vice-president JD Vance’s bestie. 

Senior editor Mel Wood breaks down what you need to know about the anti-LGBTQ2S+ pasts of some of Canada’s newly elected MPs.

Senior editor Mel Woods is an English-speaking Vancouver-based writer, editor and audio producer and a former associate editor with HuffPost Canada. A proud prairie queer and ranch dressing expert, their work has also appeared in Vice, Slate, the Tyee, the CBC, the Globe and Mail and the Walrus.

Keep Reading

Advocates mount new challenge to Alberta anti-trans law

Skipping Stone and Egale Canada are headed back to court to try and overturn Alberta’s youth gender-affirming-care ban

Dylan Mulvaney’s Broadway debut is about more than the backlash

Mulvaney’s casting in “SIX: The Musical” is the latest example of Broadway platforming trans stars
A side by side of Radclyffe Hall and her lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness, with was subject to censorship and obscenity laws

Inside the censorship campaign against this 20th century lesbian novel

Radclyffe Hall’s “The Well of Loneliness” was the target of obscenity laws in 1928

Publishers are acquiring fewer queer books due to U.S. book bans: Report

LGBTQ2S+ authors say they are seeing increases in rejections from publishers and significant decreases in royalties