The Labor MP has been in the upper house of the NSW Parliament for almost a decade, but has thus far rebuffed numerous media requests to be photographed with her children and partner, Jo.

But Ms Sharpe is seeking election to the newly-created inner-Sydney seat of Newtown - notionally a Greens seat on current voting patterns - at next year's state election.

She has decided the time is right to introduce her family - and in particular children Jemima, 15, Red, 10 and Pippi, 4 - to voters as part of a mail out to up to 70,000 households.

"When I first came into parliament there was a lot of media interest in the fact that I was an openly gay MP and in particular that I had a partner and at that time two children," she said.

Ms Sharpe said there were many requests to have photos of her with the children but the family decided it was "a bit much".

"I didn't really want to become the poster child for lesbian parenting as the main reason I was in the parliament," she said.

"There was also the issue of protecting the children's privacy, because we really weren't sure what was going to happen."

That was in 2005. Sharpe says a lot has changed since then, including that she is now recognised in law as the parent of her children after the Status of Children Act of 2006 which allowed her name to be on their birth certificate.

"But running for a lower house seat is partly about people knowing a little bit about you as a person," she said.

"Part of the decision for us was that most other politicians have a photo of their family on their election material. We decided that this is our family and people should know."

Despite contesting the socially progressive seat of Newtown, Ms Sharpe said there remained some nerves about the reaction.

"We are cognisant this is a fairly rare thing," she said. "But our view is that our family's the same as everyone else's and we should do that."