Frustrated with the current laws that discriminate against his gay mother, 11 year-old Orlando Burcham wrote to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott challenging him about his views on same-sex marriage – and he got a response!

Orlando writes,

“My name is Orlando Burcham, I am 11 years old and I would like to know why you don’t allow ‘gay marriage’ in Australia.

“Because the majority of Australians are happily married, so why are you stopping all the gay men/women to be married in this beautiful country?”

Tony Abbott, who became Prime Minister in 2013,  has been blocking same-sex marriage from becoming legalised down under.

Orlando continues,“My mother is gay and even worse your own sister is gay! And thousands more are as well. You have actually met my mum Councillor Cordelia Troy who is a member of the Liberal Party and she was deputy major at the time.

“It is so pathetic that you aren’t letting the gay people of Australia and other countries get married here. Millions of people in the world and when they come to Australia and think ‘wow this place is great1 Let’s get married here!’ And then they remember that they can’t. So they spend thousands of dollars to go somewhere they can get married. My mum is married, but she had to go to New York, which took a lot of money.

“You were elected to represent our country, not yourself. Just because you think it’s wrong, does not give you the right to make it illegal. Doesn’t our opinions matter to you? Just because you’re the Prime Minister, which by the way does not give you all the power.

“I hope you change your mind.”

To Orlando’s surprise, he received a response to his letter from the PM’s office – a response that he was “disappointed” with.

Orlando’s mother posted on Facebook saying that she was so proud of her son. She wrote, “He’s got such a beautiful heart for justice. He sat and wrote this one night after hearing a news report. the only hint was ‘mum, how do you spell beautiful?’ then ‘how do you spell pathetic?’”

Well said, Orlando!