I've always said a gay candidate is not always the best candidate. The best candidate will be one that represents everyone with honesty, hard work, fairness, and dedication. It looks like the voters of the Namatjira in Australia have picked the best representative / MP and he happens to be gay.
Australia's first every openly gay, Indigenous MP, Chansey Paech appeared in the Northern Territory parliament yesterday to give a historic speech.
At 28-years-old Paech has been elected as the member for Namatjira – an area which is named after legendary Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira and is bounded by the Queensland, South Australia and West Australia borders and extends across the Northern Territory to the north of Alice Springs.
During the 13th Parliament of the Northern Territory the Labor member acknowledged the significance of his appointment:
"Madam Speaker, I am young, I am gay, I am black, a true blue Territorian. I am a Centralian man, I am the nation's first openly gay, Indigenous parliamentarian. I am eternally proud of who I am and where I come from, I own it and wear it with pride."
Mr Paech also used the speech to talk about the importance of marriage equality, as well as reforms around same-sex adoption in the Territory. – Australian Women's Weekly
Here's a brief video with some of the text of Paech's speech.
How would a gay politician do in your community? Would voters consider a candidate's sexuality a positive or a negative? Paech stated that he found that voters simply didn't care.
“My sexuality was completely irrelevant to the people in the electorate. They were [focused] on issues which actually affected their everyday lives.” – Australian Women's Weekly
We wish you the best of luck! Give 'em hell, get things done, and represent all your people well.
