Miranda Devine is an Australian journalist commenting in the Herald Sun on the national debate over same-sex marriage taking place in that country now:

...On ABC-TV's Q&A on Monday night came an extraordinary question from an audience member who said: "The criticism of Senator Wong is based on the homophobic idea that a child is entitled to having both a father and a mother."

So there you have it. It is homophobic to say a child is entitled to a mother and a father.

Yet not one person on the panel could find the courage to knock the assertion on the head.

On Facebook someone published a list of my Facebook friends on a page called: "Stopping psychotic extremists who want to kill minorities". Inviting people to bully and harass my Facebook friends is this person's way of trying to silence an opinion he (or she) doesn't like.

A cursory glance at these rage-flecked responses offers an insight into the illiberal mindset of those who pretend to demand tolerance. Or rather ram it down our throats. This is not tolerance but jackboot totalitarianism, the tyranny of the minority.

Jackie Stricker, the lesbian partner of Dr Kerryn Phelps, wrote a letter to this newspaper calling for me to receive "urgent counselling" and saying my columns shouldn't be published.

That's right. Let's censor the unfashionable opinions, especially those held by the mainstream.