South Africa and marriage

xeduCat

Today, the highest court in South Africa found that the prevention of same-sex marriage violates that nation's constitution, and ordered that the Parliament has a year to provide the necessary laws to enable full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Justice Sachs of the SA Constitutional Court wrote:

Finding themselves strongly attracted to each other, two people went out regularly and eventually decided to set up home together. After being acknowledged by their friends as a couple for more than a decade, they decided that the time had come to get public recognition and registration of their relationship, and formally to embrace the rights and responsibilities they felt should flow from and attach to it.

Like many persons in their situation, they wanted to get married. There was one impediment. They are both women

Full text of the decision
News report (Reuters)

swiss

From http://www.southafrica.info/public_services/citizens/your_rights/update/marriage-021205.htm

South Africa is set to become the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to allow legal marriages between same-sex couples, following a Constitutional Court judgment on Thursday.

Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada allow same-sex marriages.

The court ruled that the current legal definition of marriage was in conflict with the country's Constitution because it denied gays and lesbians the rights granted to heterosexuals.

Naturally this is a welcome development. Hopefully if more and more states legalise gay marraige, people may begin to see that allowing gay people to marry will not destroy either the family or more traditional forms of marraige.

damien

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054857358

swiss

Threads merged.