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Laureen Harper’s critics, in demanding that she apologize for her husband’s sins, might actually do well in brushing up on the Conservatives’ record in terms of gay rights. In 2012, the government moved to amend a loophole in the Civil Marriage Act, which at the time meant that Canadian law didn’t recognize same-sex marriages between partners whose home jurisdictions did not allow gay marriage. That year, then-immigration minister Jason Kenney also fast-tracked the arrival of 100 gay refugees from Iran, potentially saving them from execution. As well, in 2013, immigration minister Chris Alexander said the government’s refugee board would look favourably upon asylum-seekers from Russia, while Conservatives MPs including John Baird, Lisa Raitt and yes, Stephen Harper sharply criticized the country’s backwards new laws prohibiting the promotion of gay “propaganda.”

Critics of the Conservatives, including those who took issue with Laureen Harper’s appointment as a Day of Pink ambassador, have called these efforts “pinkwashing”: that is, an effort to use gay-friendliness or superficial measures of LGBT support to cover up for various political transgressions. But the problem with calling all of these efforts pinkwashing is that it is difficult to ascertain when “pinkwashing” becomes “policy.” Is it when the government fast tracks the acceptance of gay refugees? Condemns persecution of gays around the world? Or when the prime minister’s wife dons a pink shirt to show gay and trans youth she stands in solidarity?

On a day that’s supposed to be about inclusivity, Laureen Harper’s critics would do well to put their efforts at ostracization on hold, at least for 24 hours. And leave her husband out of it.

National Post

Robyn Urback • rurback@nationalpost.com | robynurback