Kathleen Wynne says as a lesbian premier she feels an extra responsibility to help people embrace their sexuality free of discrimination.

“It is part of who I am and it is important for me to be clear that I have a responsibility because of who I am . . . to make our society safer and more inclusive,” Wynne said Wednesday after marking Day of Pink at Agincourt Collegiate Institute.

The Day of Pink came about from two Nova Scotia teenage boys supporting another student who was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. They went out and bought 50 pink shirts to wear and distribute at school the next day as part of rallying cry against bullying.

After winning the Liberal leadership in January 2013, Wynne said: “I’m not a gay activist. That’s not how I got into politics. I can be an example . . . If I can help (gay) people be less frightened, that’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

Wynne, 61, still maintains that she is not an activist, but told reporters after her speech to the school “that being a lesbian, being in this office allows others to look at this office in a different way.”

“People come up to me all the time and they say ‘I am so glad you are there because my daughter can see that she can be anything, she can do anything’ (and) there are people who come up to me often and say ‘you have made a difference in my son’s life or my daughter’s life — they’re gay — and they see your presence there as an important signal that our society is changing,’ and that we are a safer and more inclusive place,” she said.

During her talk to the students, Wynne was blunt in her introduction.

“I am the first lesbian premier, the first woman premier,” she said.

She recalled how growing up in Richmond Hill in the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s no students were out “because the world was so unsafe.”

“I don’t want a world like that. I want a world where people can be who they are and loved . . . no matter of their sexual orientation . . . and by having a Day of Pink you are contributing to that kind of society,” Wynne told the students.

“Today is a day to stand up against homophobia, it’s a day to stand up against transphobia and all those forms of discrimination,” she said.

Wynne said the government’s controversial new sexual education curriculum “is about giving kids the information that they need in order to be able to be safe.”

She once again mentioned that Indiana businesses fearing the new anti-gay law passed there recently are more than welcome to move to Ontario “because we have not just an open society, we have an open economy.”

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