Last October, I did a very special thing for the last time – I walked my youngest daughter down the aisle. I was proud. She was happy. We came down the aisle four-abreast: my daughter, her now wife, her wife's father and me.
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I'm a proud Dad to four kids. I've been lucky to see each of them find someone that they can love.
I'm the first to admit that I lost sleep when my youngest first told me she was dating a woman. I was worried about what it might mean for her. But I love my daughter and her partner more every day. They ask for no special treatment and in our family we offer love unconditionally.
Lately though, I've had a few more sleepless nights. And I want Mr Turnbull to understand why.
In my own life, there is not a lot I haven't had to deal with and fighting is something I've had to do more than once. I spent my younger days – during school and after – fighting against the label "wog". As a kid living in Wollongong, the son of migrants from Cyprus, I fought against that hatred sometimes with my fists and sometimes with words.
As I got older, I fought battles with my parents. My own father worked the majority of his life in the blast furnaces of Blue Scope Steel (BHP). My parents had very little education and struggled to look after four kids in a new country. Choosing to marry a woman of a different faith, I had to fight my parent's idea that this was wrong. Later, I fought against the idea that divorce, too, was wrong.
But personally, I thought that by now my days of fighting labels were over. Instead, I am struggling again for my daughter's rights.
I do not want to have to fight for my daughter or any other person in a same-sex relationship to be treated equally. We seem to have spent a fair amount of time making people fight to be who they are in this country. I am a proud Australian but I am hurt and ashamed by our position on same sex marriage. I do not want to see my daughter or any other person fight against the feelings you get when you are openly told you are not good enough, you are not equal, you are not 'one of us'. But that's exactly what a plebiscite debate will do.
I have been listening to the shameful political discussion on a marriage equality plebiscite. Politicians seem to be still playing the same old games – just putting a new group of people into the firing line. Aren't there enough people out there, ready to put each other down without the Australian Government encouraging this? Without the Government spending over $160 million on a plebiscite?
Mr Turnbull, you are a father and a grandfather as I am. You say that you support marriage equality. You have the power as the Prime Minister to bring this issue to a vote.
This Father's Day, look into your heart. Make the honest and fair decision. Find the gumption to stand up to your party and ask for a conscience vote. Stare down the fear and innuendo used to hold decent people to ransom because they love each other.
Same sex couples are not taking from our community, they are part of our community and part of our families, they are you & me. I believe when two people love each other and want to be with each other, we should give them that right. Don't try to pull people apart and place restrictions on love.
Don't ask this country – and don't ask same sex couples – to fight to be who they are.
This Father's Day, I want to see you show leadership: bring on a conscience vote on marriage equality.
Give our kids the right not to fight.
