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OTTAWA — France's ambassador for LGBTQ+ rights says Russia is helping sow a global backlash against gender and sexual minorities, and argues francophone countries should work together to counter growing polarization. 

"LGBT subjects are among the most confrontational, the most inflammable, in international relations," Jean-Marc Berthon said in a French-language interview during his recent visit to Canada.

Berthon also said he was taken aback by Canadian anti-LGBTQ+ protests he witnessed during a visit in late September.

Nearly a year ago, the government of French President Emmanuel Macron named Berthon as an ambassador tasked with advancing LGBTQ+ rights, both through public advocacy and work within France's diplomatic and civil service.

"The mere fact of having an ambassador for the rights of LGBT people means that the machine is put to work on these issues," he said.

Berthon advises France's embassies on how to support local LGBTQ+ advocacy groups politically and financially. These foreign missions help him keep tabs on advances and setbacks in human rights.

He said his office has also worked with bureaucrats in Paris to help LGBTQ+ activists facing danger to secure visas, so they can reach France and claim asylum.

Similar roles exist in the U.S., Britain, Italy and Argentina, and the Liberals are mulling creating such a position for Canada.

Each country's advocate tends to bring a specific aspect of LGBTQ+ issues to the world stage. For Berthon, the main goal is "to reverse this offence to humanity that constitutes the criminalization of homosexuality."

That means pushing for change in the roughly 65 countries where same-sex relations are punished by fines, corporal punishment, forced labour or execution. It also means calling out another roughly 60 countries that "drastically restrict" freedoms of speech and assembly for gender and sexual minorities.

"We have to put an end to this, as soon as possible."

Berthon noted recent gains in countries ranging from Barbados and Botswana to Singapore and Sri Lanka. "Each time there is a favourable environment, in progressive countries nearby, there can be a contagion effect," he said.

Some countries are legally recognizing same-sex parenting and marriage for the first time, and clearing barriers for transgender people to access care while cracking down on violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community.

"There are some countries that are moving forward very, very quickly. On the other hand, we see countries that are tensing up, that are becoming radicalized on the subject of LGBT issues, that are strengthening the repression against LGBT people."

Berthon said Russia is particularly harming LGBTQ+ people around the globe. Moscow justified its invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 in part over a claim that western countries seek to undermine traditional values by giving more space to sexual and gender minorities, linking them with pedophilia.

Within Russia, paramilitary groups operate with impunity when they lure LGBTQ+ people into supposed dates, only to sexually assault and shame them on camera. This past July, Russia banned certain gender-transition surgeries, and long-standing bans on so-called "homosexual propaganda" are being replicated in countries like Kyrgyzstan.

"We must be extremely vigilant about what is happening in Russia," Berthon said.

"Russia is trying to spread its entire LGBT narrative everywhere. It also tries to disseminate its repressive tools."

He said he is particularly concerned about Russian embassies partnering with U.S.-based evangelical groups to lobby lawmakers to pass legislation that criminalizes LGBTQ+ people, and to encourage social-media influencers to spread hateful rhetoric.

"It's documented, it's known," he said. "We have a kind of hybrid alliance between the Russian state and then certain very conservative North American civil society actors."

This is leading to gridlock at diplomatic tables, where "two diametrically opposed and almost irreconcilable camps" end up holding LGBTQ+ people "hostage" instead of advancing human rights, said Berthon.

"This subject has become a kind of crystallization point, in the positions between democracies and conservative authoritarian regimes," he said.

Among francophone countries, the problem is most acute in Africa, particularly during election campaigns in which LGBTQ+ people become a "scapegoat" to distract from more pressing issues.

This past June, the government of Cameroon blocked Berthon from visiting, despite his diplomatic status, arguing his role clashed with laws forbidding homosexuality. The solution, Berthon said, is to quietly empower local activists.

But he noted that advocates in French-speaking countries lack the same resources and financing as those in English-speaking ones. "Canada, France and Quebec must work to break this isolation of people who defend the rights of LGBT people in the French-speaking world."

Berthon raised that issue while visiting the Montreal-based group Égides, a global alliance of primarily French-speaking LGBTQ+ organizations that has government support from both Quebec and France.

He said that kind of collaboration shows how Canada, Quebec and France can "mutually inspire each other" on advocating for minorities abroad, while also taking stock of civil rights in their own jurisdictions.

He stressed that France also still grapples with homophobia, noting a national outcry that followed the suicide of a 13-year-old boy in January after he was bullied for identifying as gay.

In Ottawa, Berthon met with the cross-partisan Canadian Pride Caucus of MPs and senators, as well as Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien, parliamentary secretary MP Rob Oliphant and a series of officials at Global Affairs Canada focused on human rights in various regions of the world.

When he visited Quebec City, he took in an exhibit at the Musée de la civilisation museum focused on gender identity, during which a protest took place outside that portrayed LGBTQ+ people as groomers and pedophiles.

The protest was part of countrywide demonstrations against what attendees describe as "gender ideology," or measures taken by schools to promote a more inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ students — such as the raising of Pride flags, teaching about sexual and gender minorities and allowing students to be called by their preferred names and pronouns. 

While organizers insist they wanted to voice concerns about "parental rights," or parents' ability to have a say in decisions made by their children and by schools, many protesters went further than that. 

At one Calgary protest, a child shouted into a microphone that "the gays are psychopaths" and "disgusting." 

"We were surprised by these protests. You Canadians were surprised," Berthon said, adding that he was glad so many officials condemned the demonstrations that "had gone very far."

Berthon's visit came as Canadian provinces, including New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, are introducing policies that would require teachers to get parental consent when students want to use different names or pronouns, even if students feel unsafe discussing the issue with their parents.

He noted that some U.S. states also seem to be emulating Hungary and Poland in restricting mentions of LGBTQ+ people in schools.

"This is very, very worrying and it shows that the polarization I've been talking about also exists within our great democracies," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press