Quotes about gay marriage in South Africa
1 Dec 2006 |
Vernon Gibbs (38) and Tony Halls (52) get married in South Africa's first gay marriage. "This marriage... is for all HIV/AIDS sufferers and gay people who have experienced discrimination. I just have one message I would like to give to everybody that we are just two men who love each other and who have loved each other for a long time." Vernon. Tony said: “It gives us as a couple a lot more security when it comes to pension, property and bank accounts.” |
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28 Nov 2006 |
Despite some opposition, the Civil Union Act 2006 is passed by South Africa's National Council of Provinces. "According to black African culture, the marriage of a male to another male or a female to another female is taboo. It is simply not done lest we infuriate the gods," said Johannes Tlhagale of the United Christian Democratic Party. |
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end Nov 2006 |
"And taking the legislation of gay marriage to its logical conclusion, if I was a bisexual Mormon, would I be allowed to have 2 husbands and 3 wives?" David Strachan of Sandton in a letter to the Star |
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13 Nov 2006 |
The Civil Union Act 2006 is passed by South Africa's lower house, the National Assembly, on a 230 to 41 vote (there are 400 seats). South Africa's Minister of Home Affairs, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, presented the bill to the National Assembly; "When we attained our democracy we sought to distinguish ourselves from an unjust, painful past by declaring that never again shall it be that any South African would be discriminated against on the basis of color, creed, culture and sex." "The roots of this bill lie in many years of struggle...This country cannot afford to be a prison of timeworn prejudices which have no basis in modern society. Let us bequeath to future generations a society which is more democratic and tolerant than the one that was handed down to us," Defense Minister Mosuia Lekota. "Marriage is an institution created by God between a man and a woman. That is why God created Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve," Corne Mulder. "Only those who have sold their souls to cultural imperialism will support this obscenity," Motsuoko Pheko, a delegate from the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. |
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1 Dec 2005 |
The Constitutional Court of South Africa issued a ruling that the exclusion of gay marriages in South African law "represented a harsh if oblique statement by the law that same-sex couples are outsiders, and that their need for affirmation and protection of their intimate relations as human beings is somehow less than that of heterosexual couples." The court was quiet as Judge Albie Sachs read the judgement, applause fizzling out as people turned to hug each other. The court gave parliament one year to change the current definition of marriage (which says the union is between a husband and wife), failing which the law would be automatically changed to include gay unions (the court ruling states that there will be "minimal textual alteration" to the current Marriage Act. Words such as "husband" in the Marriage Act will be replaced by the word "spouse"). Full text of Constitutional Court judgement on gay marriage. |
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2 Feb 2000 |
President Mbeki assents to the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act No 4 of 2000. This reaffirms that no person may be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. |
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27 Apr 1994 |
South Africa's new post-apartheid interim constitution comes into effect and the Bill of Rights makes clear that "No person shall be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, and, without derogating from the generality of this provision, on one or more of the following ground in particular: race, gender, sex, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language." (the first bill in the world to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation). |
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