Matthew Mitcham keynote speaker at new Australian legislator group

Gay Games Ambassador Matthew Mitcham was the keynote speaker at the first meeting of a new group of Australian Members of Parliament, as reported in the Sydney Star Observer:

The inaugural function of the Parliamentary Friends of LGBTIs was launched at the Parliament’s Mural Hall last night, with a large group of MPs and Senators turning out to show their support alongside representatives of LGBTI community organisations from across the country.

The launch was organised by Queensland Liberal MP Warren Entsch with the support of the Greens Senator Hanson-Young and Labor’s Graham Perrett.

“The purpose of this Friendship group, like all other friendship groups, is about hosting a function two or three times a year to let parliamentarians meet with particular constituencies … and be able to socially interact with their representatives and raise issues and hopefully through getting to know each other, provide an opportunity to give members and senators a much better understanding of the difficulties and some of the issues that are faced in your own communities,” Entsch told the room.

In introducing the function’s keynote speaker, Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham, Perrett told the room that Australia Post had issued a stamp to commemorate his gold medal win at the Beijing Olympics.

“But unfortunately in this house there are politicians who refuse to use those stamps still after that achievement. And why? Because Matt was one of only 11 openly gay athletes at the Beijing Olympics,” Perrett said.

Keep reading HERE.

And read Matthew's post on this event HERE.