Personal Life
Penny Wong is lesbian, and was the first sitting member of the Australian Labor Party to come out while still in parliament. Her partner, Sophie Allouache, a public servant and former University of Adelaide Students' Association president, attended her swearing-in ceremony along with Wong's mother, Jane Chapman. Although her father remains overseas, they keep in touch. In December 2011, Allouache gave birth to their first child, Alexandra, after announcing the IVF-assisted pregnancy using donor sperm in August 2011.
In 2010, Wong was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential lesbian Australians. Wong is a practising Christian, attending Pilgrim Uniting Church in Adelaide.
Read more about this topic: Penny Wong
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Life is unnecessarily long. Moments of insight, of fine personal relation, a smile, a glance,—what ample borrowers of eternity they are!”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I am so tired of taking to others
translating my life for the deaf, the blind,
the “I really want to know what your life is like without giving up any of my privileges
to live it” white women
the “I want to live my white life with Third World women’s style and keep my skin
class privileges” dykes”
—Lorraine Bethel, African American lesbian feminist poet. “What Chou Mean We, White Girl?” Lines 49-54 (1979)