commenting "Of course, homosexuality is unnatural, but at least there is no second generation of homosexuals is there?", and in response O'Grady noted that most politicians were more socially conservative than the people who elected them: "there is no doubt I have experience more discrimination in Parliament House than anywhere else. Unlike politicians, who are driven by opinion polls, I think the electorate is reasonably tolerant, and recognises that there are all sorts of different views. I do not think voters are worried about the sexual preferences of politicians. What they are looking for is integrity in their politicians". O'Grady went on to champion the gay and lesbian community in parliament, inviting all MPs to join him in marching in the 1992 Mardi Gras. The multi-party delegation included Elisabeth Kirkby, Clover Moore, Ernie Page, Jan Burnswoods, Meredith Burgmann and Jeff Shaw, who would later back up his support with some key reforms as attorney-general including the review of discrimination in law and the 'Gay panic' legal defence. In July 1992, O'Grady led a day of protest against Defence Minister Robert Ray's decision to reinforce the Australian Defence Force's ban on LGBT personnel, declaring that "We should not have to be fighting in 1992 on this issue". O'Grady presented a submission to the subsequent Labor Caucus Committee on the possibility of overturning the ban and in September the committee recommended it be overturned. In November 1992 the ban was abolished by the Keating Government. In 1992 O'Grady made headlines by demanding that his boyfriend, Murray Ward, a university lecturer, be extended the same travel and other benefits as other parliamentarians' heterosexual partners, a request that he continued to ask for the next three years. In 1993 O'Grady revealed to the Sydney Star Observer that 000 Emergency phone operators had refused him assistance when he and Ward were attacked by a gang on William Street, asking him three times if it was a life-threatening situation before hanging up: "My life was not in danger but my point is this – any citizen has a right to report crime or potential crime and if the police are serious about combating street violence against gays and lesbians then they have to intervene before someone is bashed." However, in May 1994 Murray Ward died and it was revealed that O'Grady had found his 26-year-old partner dead from an accidental heroin overdose in his Paddington flat.