The no campaign knew it had to change millions of minds if it was going to win this thing. And so on day one of the campaign it dispensed with the idea that this was ever about marriage. Instead, they had to make us feel fear.

In order to win, they were going to have to lie, distort, and misrepresent. They told us Australia’s social fabric would be torn apart if marriage equality became legal, that children would be harmed, and that people of faith would be persecuted. None of it was true, but that didn’t matter. Truth is the first casualty in war, and the no campaign wanted to run a holy war for the soul of the nation.

The lies were egregious and harmful. They called same-sex parents child abusers and said their children were a new Stolen Generation. They called us “fascists” and said we were “disordered”. They declined opportunities to disavow violence and intimidation, while doing everything they could to link every person acting badly on the yes side to the official campaign.

They said that a yes vote was a vote for compulsory radical gay sex education, and that equality meant an end to free speech. A little research proved many of their claims to be nonsense. They were petty, like when they tried to shut down a singer they disagreed with. And they told small lies, even about the size of their crowds at rallies. Sometimes their silence was most deafening of all – like when they declined to condemn a man who praised Hitler for murdering gays.