The Conseil québécois LGBT, a coalition of more than 85 LGBTQ+ organizations, ran an ad campaign with Publicis Montréal during Quebec‘s provincial election that starts on LGBTQ+ subjects and then turns to housing, homelessness and the cost of living.
The tagline on the Conseil’s website reads “Le problème, c’est pas les communautés LGBTQ+.” That’s “The problem isn’t LGBTQ+ communities.” It closes with “Remettons les débats à leur place,” or “Let’s put the debates back where they belong.”
“Too often, LGBTQ+ people become the subject of conversations that do more to divide us than move society forward,” Magali Boudon, the Conseil’s executive director, said in the English version of the campaign statement, which ad trade site LBB ran Oct. 29. “This campaign invites us to take a step back, move beyond the controversies and focus the debate on the issues that affect us all.”
The French version ran on Quebec marketing site Grenier aux nouvelles.
How the Publicis Montréal Ads Pivot to Housing, Health Care and Homelessness
Each ad starts on an LGBTQ+ subject, then flips to argue that the real problems are somewhere else, Grenier reported. The work ran as street posters, print and outdoor ads, an online video and two radio spots. One radio spot is about homelessness. The other is about Quebec’s regions.
The Conseil’s campaign page says the cost of living keeps rising, housing is getting harder to find, care is harder to reach and public services are under pressure. “There’s a lot of talk about LGBTQ+ communities as if they were a problem to be solved,” it reads. “LGBTQ+ people aren’t separate from these realities. They live them too.”
Jean-François Dumais is chief creative officer on the work, with Alexandre Jourdain as executive creative director. Spark Foundry handled media.
LGBTQ+ Candidates Reported Online Hate During Quebec’s 2026 Campaign
“Hate is gaining ground,” the Conseil wrote in its election platform. Its 11 demands include stable funding for LGBTQ+ groups, a provincial plan against online hate and more public money for gender-affirming surgeries.
Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime called in March 2024 for banning mastectomies for minors and requiring parental consent before anyone under 16 can take puberty blockers. “It’s important because parents are concerned,” he said, per The Canadian Press.
In August, LGBTQ+ candidates from several parties said they were being hit with hateful messages online, The Canadian Press reported. Québec solidaire president Roxane Milot said “the situation is getting worse day by day in Quebec, it’s very alarming.”
Parti Québécois candidate Philippe Schnobb said he’s often received homophobic comments since getting into politics. “It’s not pleasant, especially when it turns into threats,” he said.
The Conseil held an exchange on LGBTQ+ issues Sept. 28. Its YouTube listing names two participants, Liberal Jennifer Maccarone and Milot.
Book of LGBTQ+ Short Stories Sent to Quebec’s Newly Elected Members
Quebecers voted Oct. 5. The Parti Québécois won 59 seats and a minority government, The Canadian Press reported. The Liberals became the official opposition. Duhaime’s Conservatives won 19 seats, and the Coalition Avenir Québec was shut out. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was sworn in as premier Oct. 21.
The Conseil and Publicis also produced Histoires de tous genres (the agency’s English title is “Stories from Beyond the Binary”; in French, genre means both kind and gender), a limited-edition collection of short stories by LGBTQ+ authors about the cost of living, homelessness and an aging population. A copy went to each newly elected member of the National Assembly, Grenier reported.
“We’re incredibly proud to have partnered with the Conseil québécois LGBT to fulfill their ambition of re-focusing the conversation on the issues that affect us all,” Jourdain said in the statement. “And with the book, we’re making sure that message stays in the hands of the people shaping what comes next.”
Grenier posted a video on the book, titled “Recueil 2026,” to YouTube on Oct. 19.
Gayety translated quotes from French-language sources. The Boudon and Jourdain quotes are from the English statement.
