South Africa on the verge of legalizing same-sex marriage

[FernBell]

The South African parliament passed legislation recognizing same-sex marriages Tuesday in an unprecedented move on a continent where homosexuality is taboo.

African National Congress veterans heralded the Civil Union bill for extending basic freedoms to everyone and equated it with liberation from the shackles of apartheid.

The bill's supporters had to overcome criticism from both traditionalists and gay activists and warnings that the legislation may be unconstitutional.

"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 will be discriminated against on the basis of color, creed culture and sex," Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told the National Assembly.

.......

The National Assembly passed the Civil Union Bill, worked out after months of heated public discussion, by a vote of 230 to 41 with three abstentions. The outcome was expected given the ANC's huge majority. It now has to be approved by the National Council of Provinces, which is expected to be a formality, before being signed into law by President Thabo Mbeki.

The bill provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union." It does not specify whether they are heterosexual or homosexual partnerships.

.......

South Africa recognized the rights of gay people in the constitution adopted after apartheid ended in 1994 -- the first in the world to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/11/14/safrica.gay.marriage.ap/index.html

[Olney Blue]

1. An enlightened country... a good example for us.

[Sapphocrat]

2. Done and done, as of today. n/t