Réal Ménard
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Réal Ménard (born May 13, 1962 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian politician, and is member of the Canadian House of Commons for the Quebec riding of Hochelaga. He is a member of the Bloc Québécois.
Ménard is a political scientist with B.A. and M.A. degrees. He first stood for federal office in the 1984 federal election as candidate for the small Parti nationaliste du Québec in Hochelaga–Maisonneuve. Defeated in this first try, he contested the riding in the 1993 election for the new and larger Bloc Québécois. He was elected, and re-elected in the riding in the 1997, 2000, and, the riding being renamed Hochelaga, 2004, and 2006 federal elections.
Early in his parliamentary career, he served variously as Bloc critic for Health, for science, research and development, for Labour, for National Defence, and for the Federal Office of Regional Development-Quebec. From 1998 to June 29, 1999, he was critic for Citizenship and Immigration and for public housing.
The next day, he again became critic for health, in which capacity he has served since. During three sessions, Ménard has been Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Health. On September 14, 2001, he took on additional critic responsibility for the Montreal Region.
In March 2006 he was shuffled from the Health Critic position to become the Bloc Québécois Justice Critic.
[edit] Outing, and advocacy for gay rights
After Svend Robinson, Ménard was the second Canadian Member of Parliament to come out as gay.
Ménard's public outing in 1994 caught most people by surprise, himself included. It happened right on the floor of the House of Commons. Roseanne Skoke, a former Liberal MP and social conservative, spoke against legislation to include sexual orientation as a category in a human rights bill, contending that "Homosexuality is not natural, it is immoral and it is undermining the inherent rights and values of our Canadian families and it must not and should not be condoned." Ménard became so angry he stood up and began to attack Skoke's position, and Robinson demanded she retract her words. Ménard never directly said he was gay, but by the time he was done berating Skoke it seemed to be widely understood. "I knew I wanted to come out at some point," Ménard said subsequently. "I just hadn't planned to do it right then."
In 1999, he joined a "pink caucus" with fellow MPs Robinson, a New Democrat, Liberal Bill Graham, and Progressive Conservative Diane St-Jacques. The group argued that the legal definition of spouse should include same-sex couples. Ménard later put forward a private member's bill calling for the government to change the definition of "spouse" in all federal laws to include same-sex partnerships. Court decisions and eventual government bills achieved this effect by 2005.
