Sydney Archbishop says religious believers could lose their jobs if gay marriage is legalised, by AAP.

“The state has no business telling us who we should love and how, sexually or otherwise,” he told the St Mary’s Cathedral congregation.

“The only kind of friendship the state has a proper interest in recognising and regulating is heterosexual marriage, because that’s what leads to children — new citizens — and gives them the best start in life.”

Archbishop Fisher said it was best for children to have a mother and a father, and that’s what marriage was about.

He said the vote had implications for religious freedom and it wasn’t unreasonable for people to say they couldn’t support a change to marriage laws until protections were in place.

“If overseas experience is anything to go by, if marriage is redefined it will be very hard to speak up for real marriage anymore — in schools, at work, socially,” he said.

“Traditional believers will be vulnerable to discrimination suits and other kinds of bullying for their beliefs. Some may lose their jobs, promotions, businesses, political careers.”

hat-tip Stephen Neil