When Kathleen Wynne is sworn in as premier, she will become the first female premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada.

On the weekend, Wynne said she feels a responsibility to young gay people, especially, to show them there's a more welcoming future ahead.

That's inspiring to and applauded by Windsor's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

'She's someone for me to look up to right not.'— Leona Gevaert, high school student

Leona Gevaert is the prime minister of Sandwich High School's gay-straight alliance. She called Wynne's victory "absolutely fantastic."

"She’s someone for me to look up to right now," said Gevaert, who eventually wants to go to law school and into politics.

Gevaert said she was scared to come out before entering high school.

"It was a process of ignoring it and burying it. It was a difficult process at first," she recalled.

The gay-straight alliance was a safe place.

"You can go and be yourself. You don’t have judging eyes around you," Gevaert said. "We're creating a school in general that is more accepting and tolerant."

She hopes Ontario, and Canada, are accepting of Wynne.

"We have legalized gay marriage in Canada. Everyone’s pretty much okay with it in Canada, but at the same time, we haven’t had anyone [this prominent] being really open in office," Gevaert said.

Winds Pride inspired by Wynne

Julie Leadbetter is gay. She taught elementary school in the Windsor area for 32 years until retiring.

She said being gay and being a teacher had its challenges then and still does now.

She taught for five years before coming out in 1985.

"As a teacher you’re dealing with parents in the public and you have a complete mosaic of people with different beliefs and religions and different feelings about it," said Leadbetter, who also served on the board for Windsor Pride.

Leadbetter said someone of Wynne's profile and sexual orientation 30 years ago would have made her life easier.

"My whole life may have been different. It might have been something I dealt with earlier in life instead of waiting until I was 28," she said. "It’s important when any high profile person comes out as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. It’s like seeing yourself reflected in famous people, hoping more and more people will see it as widespread universal, natural thing."

Melanie Deveau of Windsor Pride said Wynne's success is inspirational.

"I think it's great whenever there's a good example; a triumph that can be held up, especially for young LGBT," she said. "They can say, 'hey you know what I can do anything I want to do and be anything I want to be.'"

'It ought to be a non-issue for everyone. But we're not there yet.'— Julie Leadbetter

Both Deveau and Leadbetter said society still has a long way to go.

"We’re part of the mosaic that makes up this country," Leadbetter said of the LGBT community. "It ought to be a non-issue for everyone. But we’re not there yet."

Deveau agreed.

"We have a black president in the United States. We have an openly gay, first woman premier in Ontario. I think we're making progress but a lot of work still needs to be done," she said. "If this puts a little dent in the homophobia and the trans-phobia that's out there then that's a great thing."