The whole debate on marriage equality and now unnecessary vote that is a waste of $122 million is a debate about whether people of the same sex can be married legally, not religiously, rendering your quote from the Bible irrelevant to the discussion.

As a nation we are not given the opportunity to vote on whether we send young Australian men and women off to war, to their deaths, to be maimed physically and psychologically, only to have them return home and suffer unmercifully and take their lives. 

We entrust politicians to make this decision, but we do not trust politicians to amend the Marriage Act that was amended by the parliament only a few years ago by the Howard Government. 

Unlike sending our youth off to war, nobody will be killed, harmed or take their life because people of the same sex will be allowed to marry in the eyes of the law. 

That so many people want their say on this but gladly leave life and death decisions for young Australians in the hands of politicians is, at best, a demonstration of upside-down values and, at worst, a demonstration of homophobia and prejudice. The parliament should be permitted to do its job.

Nobody is asking churches and religious organisations to change anything they currently do and surely we can trust the politicians to put in place the necessary laws to protect religious organisations.

Yes, Rev Smith, I am biased toward equality in society because I am a transgender woman and have been on the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination in the extreme.

Sixty per cent of transgender Australians are unemployed and 20pc take their life, invariably after long-term unemployment and the resulting poverty, homelessness, etc.