In modern Australia, no-one should have to justify their sexuality or their love to anyone else.

And under Labor, instead of providing a taxpayer-funded platform for homophobia, Parliament will do its job and deliver marriage equality within 100 days.

That was what Bill Shorten said during the Facebook debate, and he’s repeated it since then.

Malcolm Turnbull says that:

Bill Shorten was “running a scare campaign about a plebiscite on gay marriage”. Turnbull said a plebiscite would be conducted in a civil and respectful way.

“Bill Shorten should have more respect for the decency and common sense of Australians,” he said.

Penny Wong worries that the plebiscite will license hate speech and that heterosexual politicians don’t understand the fear and animosity already faced by LGBTI Australians.

Heterosexual politicians calling for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage don’t understand the fear and animosity faced by LGBTI Australians, the senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong has argued.

Wong made the remarks in the Lionel Murphy memorial lecture at the Australian National University on Tuesday.

She raised the fact that LGBTI Australians face abuse online, that they are still victims of assault and fear holding hands in public, to demonstrate their opposition to a divisive plebiscite is well-founded.

She says:

“I don’t oppose a plebiscite because I doubt the good sense of the Australian people. I oppose a plebiscite because I don’t want my relationship – my family – to be the subject of inquiry, of censure, of condemnation, by others.”

Meanwhile

Australian Christian Lobby released an election guide blasting Labor for opposing a plebiscite. It also claimed Labor’s policies to recognise transgender people’s gender identity would “make public toilets unsafe for women and girls”.

The Greens have called on Turnbull to dump the plebiscite farce.

Labor and the Greens may block the enabling legislation if Turnbull wins the election. Apart from worries about the thoroughly unpleasant process, there are worries that, like the republic, the plebiscite may put marriage equality out of reach for many years.

Barnaby Joyce says the plebiscite is a non-negotiable condition of the coalition agreement.

Turnbull doesn’t believe what he says. He’s being run by the party again.

Meanwhile Liberal senator Cory Bernardi launched a blistering attack on Malcolm Turnbull, accusing him of implying that he and other Coalition MPs are homophobic. You might remember that Bernadi resigned as Tony Abbott’s parliamentary secretary in 2012 after suggesting that gay marriage might lead to acceptance of bestiality. He reckons that wasn’t homophobic either.

Poor man, must be tough to be misunderstood.

And Scott Morrison says he understands the “bigotry and hatred” levelled at LGBTI people because he has experienced the same thing for his opposition to marriage equality.

Shorten is right – for ScoMo it’s all about him.