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Meet Warren Entsch, Queensland’s unlikely but vocal LGBTI champion
From the SMH
May 28, 2015
By Matthew Knott
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/meet-warren-entsch-queenslands-unlikely-but-vocal-lgbti-champion-20150528-ghbwdc.htmlQuote:Warren Entsch was turned on.The Coalition backbencher was then a 20-something stockman in far north Queensland and a girl at the local pub caught his eye.
“I saw this bird pass me in shorts and a boob tube,” he says. “I said to the owner of the pub, ‘Friggin’ hell – who have you got here working for you? That’s a good looking sheila. Where did she come from?'”
The stranger, it turned out, was not a stranger at all.
At the time Entsch was dating a local girl from Georgetown, 400 kilometres south-west of Cairns, and they would drink at the pub with her male cousin.
“After a few beers he would become very feminine with the other guys and would end up having a fight.”
The cousin disappeared for a few months. Now Entsch discovered why: he had gone to Sydney to have a sex change operation. He returned as a woman and started work as a barmaid.
“That amazed me,” Entsch says. “Imagine having the courage to do that.”
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As life took him in other directions, Entsch lost touch with the barmaid from Georgetown. In 2006 – after speaking publicly about their friendship – he received a letter from her thanking him.
“You are the one who has shown true courage by your acceptance, tolerance and support not only now in the national arena but also all those years ago in the smaller but potentially more hostile arena of the ‘Gulf Country’ of 20 years ago,” she wrote.
“For the sake of those families that differ in composition to the Prime Minister’s ideal I hope you are successful in your campaign.”
She finished by saying she had gone back to school, finished year 12, studied medicine at university and was now working as a doctor.
The two have since reconnected and the friends share a common interest promoting LGBTI awareness among doctors in rural areas.
“I love her to pieces, I’m very proud of her,” he says. “I’d like to have half as much character as she does.”
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