Date:         Sat, 15 Oct 1994 07:10:47 EDT

For those who are interested in, perhaps sending a word of congratulations to
Real Menard, you may contact him as follows:

     Real Menard
    c/o House of Commons
    OTTAWA, Ontario   K1A 0A6

    Telephone:  (613) 947-4576
    Facsimile:    (613) 947-4579
    Internet e-mail to fax gateway (free of charge):
        remote-printer.Real_Menard@16139474579.iddd.tpc.int


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SECOND MP COMES OUT
Disgusted Real Menard tries to best evangelical Roseanne Skoke

From:
Xtra (Toronto's Lesbian and Gay Biweekly)
P.O. Box 7289, Station 'A'
Toronto, ON

Story by:  Philip Hannan
October 14, 1994
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-----------

Bloc Quebecois member of Parliament Real Menard didn't think the time was
right to come out last month.  But when an evangelical Liberal MP rose in the
House of Commons Sep 20 to say that homosexuality is unnatural, immoral,
destroys Christian values and must be opposed, Menard decided the time had
come to speak out.

"If I had stayed silent it would have been in my point of view a sign of
cowardice," says Menard.  "You have to speak out at the time, you can't speak
out afterwards."

"I felt the need to defend a community that I am a part of," Menard says.  "I
cannot remain silent when the MP says someone who is homosexual engages in
practices of bestiality or is a paedophile.  I could not accept that because
the gay community is my community."

Openly gay MP Svend Robinson had been working with Menard ever since the
opposition Bloc Quebecois came to Ottawa.  They had discussed Menard's
intention to eventually come out, but when the Skoke affair blew up, Robinson
and Menard had a special meeting.  On the morning of Sep 27, Robinson, a New
Democrat who came out a few years ago, urged Menard to come out now.  He did,
later that day.

Menard isn't new to gay activism.  In the 1980s he volunteered for a gay
community speaker's bureau in Montreal.

He says he knew from the age of seven or eight of his attraction to men and
started going out to Montreal bars when he was in his late teens.

The 32-year-old MP, who has lived with his lover for a year, says he is very
pleased with the positive reaction to his coming out.  "One is always a bit
afraid that people wouldn't understand, that they would react, but it turned
out really well."

"It wasn't easy to say," he says of the announcement.  "You mustn't think,
even if it turned out well, it was easy.  You reveal a dimension of your
personality; it's something very personal."

His parents already knew, Menard says, but he was still worried about them.
"Even though they accepted me, it was now going to be public.  Their
acquaintances who didn't know they had a gay son  --  they know now.  It's
always difficult for parents.  You can't discount their side of things."

"When I came out that day, I called my parents to say, 'Well maman, you must
prepare for this.  I'm going to be telling journalists.  It's possible that
it will be reported on television.'"

"My parents said they understood, but I felt they were a little sad.  That's
life, no?"


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