The left and part of the presidential camp have jumped. And denounced a “provocation”. Opposition to marriage for all. Opposition to the inclusion in the Constitution of the freedom to resort to abortion. The very conservative profile of the Republican (LR) senator Laurence Garnier, expected to be appointed Minister of Familiesmakes teeth grind.
The 46-year-old elected official from Nantes, leader of the opposition to the socialist mayor Johanna Rolland, is part of the casting submitted by the LR for the future government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier, according to several sources within the right-wing party and the central bloc.
This choice provoked an immediate outcry, due to the past positions taken by this parliamentarian close to the leader of the LR senators Bruno Retailleau (himself proposed for the Interior).
According to an advisor to the executive, Emmanuel Macron alerted the Prime Minister on the “delicate profile” of the senator. This Friday, September 20, many wondered if her presence in the government was not already threatened.
Opposed to gay marriage
A senator since 2020, Laurence Garnier led the examination the following year of a LREM bill for “real economic and professional equality” which established quotas for women in management positions in large companies. But his positions on sexuality and reproductive health are worrying.
In 2013, she opposed same-sex marriage and supported the Manif pour tous (against gay marriage). In 2021, she also opposed the creation of a crime punishing conversion therapy, practices aimed at imposing heterosexuality on LGBT people. And last February, she voted against the inclusion in the Constitution of the guaranteed freedom to abort: “Our fellow citizens expect the government to take care of straightening out our country, rather than problems that do not exist,” she justified.
A few weeks later, she approved a controversial Senate bill aimed at supervising gender transitions among minorsin particular by prohibiting the prescription of cross-hormones and by very strictly conditioning the administration of “puberty blockers” to these young people.
“As an association working for equal LGBTI rights, We are concerned about Laurence Garnier’s ability to defend the rights of all families!“, warned the Gaylib association on X (formerly Twitter), which campaigns for the freedoms of LGBT people.
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