(picture from BBC news online)Yes, while some US states move backwards, South Africa's parliament has voted this week to legalise same-sex weddings! It was the first African country to approve such unions and the fifth in the world, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada. The Civil Union bill was passed by 230 votes to 41. It provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnised and registered by either a marriage or civil union". This new legislation was introduced after the Constitutional Court ruled last year that the existing laws discriminated against homosexuals. The ruling was based on the constitution, which was the first in the world specifically to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC), who has a majority in the parliament had asked all the members of parliament to vote for the law, despite the opposition of church and traditional leaders (big surprise, no?). African Christian Democratic Party leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe has even told the parliament that those who voted for same-sex marriages would face divine wrath…
However some gay rights activists have criticised the bill, because it gives officials the right not to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies if this would conflict with their "conscience, religion and belief"… (reminds me of abortion in Portugal…).
Read further:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6147010.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6147384.stm
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