A New Zealand lawmaker has given an inspiring, hilarious speech on the subject of marriage equality.

Maurice Williamson gave one of the greatest speeches in the name of equality last night (16 April), talking about some of the more bigoted people in his electorate.

It was filmed shortly before the parliament voted, and New Zealand became the 14th nation to legalize marriage equality.

‘I had a Catholic priest tell me that I was supporting an unnatural act. I found that quite interesting coming from someone who has taken an oath of celibacy for his whole life,’ Williamson said.

‘I also had a letter telling me I would burn in the fires of hell for eternity. That was a bad mistake because I’ve got a degree in physics.

‘I used the thermodynamic laws of physics, I put in my body weight and my humidity and so on, I assumed the furnace to be at 5000 degrees and I will last for just 2.1 seconds. It’s hardly eternity, what do you think?’

He added: ‘I give a promise to those people who are opposed to this bill right now. I give you a watertight guaranteed promise; the sun will still rise tomorrow, your teenage daughter will still argue back with you as if she knows everything, your mortgage will not grow, you will not have skin diseases or rashes or toads in your beard. The world will just carry on.’

Williamson concluded by saying one of the messages he had received said the marriage equality bill was the cause of the recent drought.

He joked: ‘Well if any of you follow my Twitter account, you will see in the Pakuranga electorate this morning, it was pouring with rain. We had the most enormous big gay rainbow across my electorate. It has to be a sign!’

Check out the speech, as well as the entire parliament breaking into song, here: