A second Conservative riding president in New Brunswick is resigning over Premier Blaine Higgs’ stance on the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

Former president of the Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou riding association, Noémie David-Gauvin, has a transgender brother and could no longer support the party due to the prime minister’s positions on Policy 713 and the rights of transgender people.

In doing so, she adds her voice to that of Moncton East Riding Association president Marc Savoie, who made the same gesture on Sunday following the presence of Blaine Higgs at a demonstration organized by anti-human rights groups in the LGBTQ+ community in Fredericton .

The protests where Higgs only went one way and not the other. It just confirmed my decisionexplains Noémie David-Gauvin, who announced her departure from the party on September 13th.

I cannot support anyone who violates the rights of transgender people and continue to support my brother who is transgenderShe explains.

It goes against my values. I can’t support a party that is so against everything transgender, LGBTQ+, I can’t do that. I’m not getting involved and I wouldn’t stand up for the next election, that’s for sure.

Like Marc Savoie, Noémie David-Gauvin was among the Progressive Conservatives who challenged Blaine Higgs’ leadership in recent months, a process that ultimately failed.

For Marc Savoie and Noémie David-Gauvin it is above all a symbolic gesture.

The parties are in the process of creating new constituency associations, a move forced by the adoption of a new electoral map last spring. The members of the board of existing associations, including the presidents, must be re-elected.

The Progressive Conservative Party said Tuesday that it would not comment on the departures of these two riding association presidents.

With information from Nicolas Steinbach