Tony Milne, last night selected as a Labour candidate for Christchurch City Council, says he hopes to be the city's first openly gay city councillor. “While gay politics won't form a large part of my campaign, it is symbolically important that Christchurch elect its first openly gay city councillor”, Milne says. “My vision is for a city that young people want to come home to and never leave – and creating an inclusive city that welcomes queer people to every aspect of public life is an important part of achieving that vision.” Milne has twice stood for Parliament for Labour in the rural Rakaia seat. Despite being Labour's youngest candidate, and openly gay, he received the best result for Labour in over 20 years in that seat standing against one of the loud voices against Civil Union, Brian Connell. Milne stood side-by-side with many young LGBT activists at Brian Tamaki's anti-gay ‘Enough is Enough' rally, at the Wellington High School Destiny Church protest, and other protests around NZ in 2005. We was also an active member of the Civil Union campaign committee: “You can only achieve things if you fight for them. And we have a long way to go before GLBT are full and equal members of society and free from bullying and violence. Which is why there needs to be many more gay, particularly more young people, involved in political parties,” he said at the time. “Standing against two incumbent councillors will not be easy,” admits Milne. “In fact, some say I can't win. But as a young gay man from a working class family in Invercargill I know what it's like to overcome other peoples barriers – I've spent my life doing it. I'm not about to stop now. “But I can't do it on my own and will be calling on the support of the queer community throughout New Zealand.” Visit Milne's website to donate to his campaign or catch up on the latest news from Milne – the link is below. Ref: Tony Milne, GayNZ.com (m)