"This isn't something that I acquired from school or from home. This is just who I am." The voicemail message to Speaker Bronwyn Bishop is just two and a half minutes long, but it has come all the way from Los Angeles.
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Young gay Australian actor Harry Cook has made a direct plea to his local MP to support same-sex marriage. His is one of 800 messages recorded as part of Australian Marriage Equality's "Equality Calling" phone campaign targeting federal MPs.
The 23-year-old stars in the new movie Drown, which deals with homophobia in Sydney's surf lifesaving community and premiered at the Mardi Gras Film Festival this month. Currently based in LA, where same-sex marriage is legal, Cook tells Ms Bishop: "I don't feel like a second-class citizen [here]."
Apart from nearly 40 states in the US and parts of Mexico, same-sex marriage is legal in 18 countries including New Zealand, France, Canada and the United Kingdom.
"Australia looks like archaic, like it belongs in the stone age," Cook says.
A spokesman for Ms Bishop said Madam Speaker had not received the message and "remains opposed" to same-sex marriage.
Cook, however, is still keen to "have a chat" with the member for Mackellar.
"I would love to meet her and just ask why it is any of her business, why she thinks it's her choice not to allow it," he told Fairfax Media.
Cook, who came out in a heartfelt YouTube video in 2013, is particularly concerned about the impact that not allowing same-sex marriage has on the suicide rates of young lesbian and gay people.
"It's such a horrible message," he says.
Australian Marriage Equality national director Rodney Croome is urging same-sex marriage supporters to take advantage of the campaign's 1300 hotline, which allows people to record a message that is then sent direct to their local federal MP or senator.
"Several MPs who are sitting on the fence have told me privately the messages they're receiving are quite compelling and have opened their eyes to a new way of looking at the issue," he said.
The Liberal Party is yet to form a post-2013 election position on whether MPs should be given a free vote on same-sex marriage in federal parliament.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young will move a motion when the Senate next sits on March 16, calling on the upper house to support a conscience vote. Labor MPs already have a conscience vote, and Senator Hanson-Young's motion would not have any binding effect on Coalition MPs.
Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm currently has a bill on the issue before the parliament, but there is no set time to debate or vote on it.
