Treasurer Scott Morrison says the fact that companies are restructuring proves the laws are working. Gay marriage will be legislated in this country, as it has been in countless jurisdictions around the world. Poll after poll has shown support for marriage equality among at least 60 per cent of the population. Some have it as high as 70 per cent. But, because the conservatives of the Coalition party room had a panic-tantrum and pretended they needed a glass of water, we must have a plebiscite first. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was forced to accept this condition on ascending to the leadership and, yes, it's annoying and perhaps it was weak of him, but he is unlikely to reverse his position at this point. Even if he did, can you imagine the outcry? Anti gay-marriage advocates would declare it a denial of freedom of speech and a perversion of democracy. Defenders of traditional marriage everywhere would use their nationally-syndicated columns to declare their voices had been stifled.

Penny Wong and partner Sophie Allouache after the birth of their daughter Alexandra in 2011. Because one of the eccentric facts about the gay marriage debate so far has been the insistence by the "anti" camp that this is a niche issue and people are only talking about it because it is an obsession of the left-wing media. We should be concerning ourselves with issues of greater national importance, things that truly impact the lives of a great number of Australians. Weighty issues like tax reform and fiscal consolidation! I actually agree with this argument. It's demonstrably true that most Australians don't think the legalisation of gay marriage will particularly affect their lives. That's why they're happy for the Parliament to wave it through. It's the traditional-marriage conservatives who have forced the issue on to the national agenda with their dreary plebiscite.

These people will use the plebiscite as a fun opportunity to insult, make death threats, and to cleverly throw the word "faggot" into a thousand wittily-worded and grammatically correct tweets. Of course, apart from the people who fear that the legalisation of gay marriage will result in the sort of moral slippery slope that leads inexorably to people coupling with household appliances and being allowed to marry their sisters, there is another segment of the population that has some skin in this game. That is, gay and lesbian people. Although Scott Morrison this week claimed he, too, is the target of hateful bigotry for his Christian views, it's safe to assume that he doesn't have to worry about being bashed for wearing a crucifix around his neck, or blamed for the moral decay of society just because he would like his baby-mama to automatically inherit his superannuation when he dies. As Labor Senator Penny Wong pointed out this week, gay and lesbian people are steeling themselves for the cavalcade of morons, and worse, who will prick up their reptilian ear-holes at the sound of the for-and-against campaigns. "A plebiscite designed to deny me and many other Australians a marriage certificate will instead license hate speech to those who need little encouragement," she told a packed audience at the Australian National University.

She is right. These people will use the plebiscite as a fun opportunity to insult, make death threats, and to cleverly throw the word "faggot" into a thousand wittily-worded and grammatically correct tweets. These people will make gay and lesbian people feel bad, and the plebiscite, which looks like it might happen next year, could end up being a deeply depressing era in our national public debate. But – and I hope I don't offend any Christians in saying so – the "yes" campaign has right on its side. By which I mean not a godly sort of right, but reason – the greatest and noblest liberal value of them all. Why else do you think the moral conservatives are fighting so hard against it and using every electoral trick in the book to stymie it?

Because they know their best material is to scare people about how gay marriage will "damage" children and, like, how is this whole thing going to work anyway because, if it's two chicks getting married, how do you decide who gets to walk down the aisle? Huh? Watch society crumble! These people know that beyond a generalised anxiety about social change, there is not a single rational argument to be made against gay marriage. There are religious arguments against it, and they are to be respected, but they are faith-based and not grounded in reason. So, let the advocates of traditional marriage mount their irrational case. Let them lose. And then let the result forever speak for itself.