A rainbow flag, which has flown outside the front of a Uniting Church in the Redfern-Waterloo area, has been cut down twice in the past three weeks. They had bought the letterbox from Sydney artist Mickey Quick, who gave the couple a replacement for free after the attack. But in a separate incident within the week it had been knocked off its fixing. "[The vandals] had also written "no" over the "yes" but they did a bad job so it wasn't very visible," Mr Stumm said. On the night of the second attack, the couple claimed they returned home to find a bag of what they said was dog poo on their doorstep.

The same-sex letterbox, covered in black paint after the first instance of vandalism. Credit:Facebook Mr Stumm said the vandalism had prompted others in the area to come forward and share what had happened to their displays of support for same-sex marriage. "Another neighbour in our street put a rainbow marriage flag at the local church with the approval of the priest, but it has been torn down several times. "The priest knocked on our door on Sunday morning to chat about that." South Sydney Uniting Church minister the Reverend Andrew Collins said vandals had twice climbed up onto the church to cut down the flag, which was held up by cable ties.

"We will keep replacing it if it comes down again," Mr Collins said. "We are not sure if this is a more deliberate statement against the campaign or just someone playing games but, given it's happened twice, I seem to think it isn't just someone playing around." Mr Stumm said another neighbour had become too afraid to show her support for same-sex marriage. "She put a handwritten note in our letterbox, saying thank you for making the statement we have. "It said: 'I bought a rainbow flag. I would have loved to put up but I am too afraid. I am a single mother with a young child and I don't want to.'

"That little spray painting of the letterbox has intimidated someone from expressing what they intended to. "It's having an effect. It's pretty clear that the unnecessary plebiscite will result in a 'yes' vote so we are going through this for nothing." Mr Stumm said there had been a positive interaction after the vandalism. "An older Italian-Australian lady who I am friendly with from the neighbourhood, she saw the letterbox and said, 'It's great. I haven't got my form yet, I really want to vote yes.' "This is below the surface everywhere. Queer friends of ours are abused. Men yell abuse out the window of cars and harass lesbian women who show affection in public.

"This is really upsetting to think that there's people there who feel entitled to have a say about the legal status of other people's relationships but that, if anyone expresses an opposing opinion, they feel they have the right to encroach on a person's house or property." The couple have now left a note next to the letterbox that reads: "If you don't like our letterbox - make your own. Please don't deface ours ... we invite you to knock on our door and chat about why we say yes and you say no." Mr Quick has made about 100 of the rainbow letterboxes and is selling them for $75 each. Proceeds go to Camp Out, a camp for LGBTIQ teenagers.