Same-sex marriage law approved
09/11/2006 21:12 - (SA)

Cape Town - The national assembly's home affairs committee adopted the controversial civil unions bill on Thursday, amid objections from opposition parties and disillusionment from gay and lesbian lobby groups.

Only ANC members of the committee voted in favour of the bill, with opposition parties either abstaining or voting against the legislation.

"This is a messy piece of legislation, and the ANC did not give us an opportunity to go through the bill clause by clause before voting," said Democratic Alliance spokesperson Tertius Delport, whose party abstained from voting.

The African Christian Democratic Party, which opposed the final draft of the legislation, said it was disappointed with the outcome of the parliamentary process.

"We, together with thousands of people and groups that made submissions to parliament, have consistently stated that same-sex marriage should not be legalised, and that our constitution should be amended to protect the sanctity of marriage," said party spokesperson Steve Swart.

'Separate but equal'

The legislation - whose objective is to satisfy the Constitutional Court's ruling that parliament devise a law affording same-sex couples the same legal status and recognition as married heterosexuals - also drew criticism from the gay and lesbian community.

A gay and lesbian lobby group, the Triangle Project, said the legislation discriminates against gays and lesbians.

"It allows heterosexuals to get married either under this new legislation or the customary Act, while on the other hand it restricts gays and lesbian to this new legislation," said spokesperson Vista Khalipha.

"In other words the new legislation says we are separate but equal, and to us this is still discrimination."

'Historic moment in the country's democracy'

While the committee's chairperson, Patrick Chauke, described Thursday's adoption of the bill as yet another "historic moment in the country's democracy", he said he would not be surprised if certain sections of society were unhappy.

"We had to strike the balance between the Constitutional Court ruling and the opinions of various sectors of society.

"We are glad that our people were given the opportunity to express their views on this matter.

He dismissed the DA's accusation that the voting process was irregular, saying the DA wanted to use the process to introduce a new debate.

"This bill will be tabled at the national assembly on Tuesday, where the DA will get an opportunity to engage in such a debate," he told Sapa.

Being gay in SA
06/11/2006 12:57 - (SA)

Soweto - At an informal, unlicensed bar at a house in a remote corner of men and women sip lukewarm beer, mingle, flirt and sometimes dance to driving and monotonous kwaito rhythms.

They share a secret.

The bar, called a shebeen in the townships, is one of the places where young, black gays don't have to hide who they are, where they can talk openly, and find companionship and a safe haven in an often hostile township.

South Africa in 1996 was the first country to adopt a constitution that protects people from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Under its terms, the Constitutional Court ordered the government to legalise same sex marriage by year's end.

Partly as a result, the country has the most open gay community on a continent where homosexuality is usually driven underground and portrayed as un-African - an unwanted legacy of colonialism and white culture.

A life of loneliness

But legal protection does not guarantee acceptance or tolerance. The reality is often a life of loneliness, fear, rape, violence and sometimes even murder.

"I've been raped six times, five times just because I am gay. I was raped by men I know, who wanted to show me what it means to be a woman. They thought it would change me, that it would keep me from being gay," said a young black lesbian from Soweto who asked not to be identified by name for fear of reprisals.

Human Rights Watch said early this year that lesbians in South Africa face abuse and violence simply for not fitting social expectations of how women should act.

At a township outside Cape Town last February, 19-year-old lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana died after she was chased by a mob, beaten with golf clubs and bricks, and stabbed because of her sexual orientation. No one was arrested, said Donna Smith, the head of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women and a member of the Coalition of African Lesbians.

"We work with black lesbians in the townships. One of the first things we did was organise an anti-hate crime campaign. At the first meeting we asked how many had been the victims of a hate crime or had first-hand knowledge of one and everyone in the room put her hand up," said Smith.

Homophobia is un-African

During a gay pride march last year, she said the forum's float was attacked by people throwing bottles because it portrayed homosexuality as a natural part of African culture.

"What is un-African is homophobia," said Smith. "Some people believe homosexuality is an idea brought here by the white man. But it has always been here. What the white man brought was homophobia clothed in religious doctrines that we did not have before."

Anthropologists have found evidence that homosexuality was widely tolerated in many parts of pre-colonial Africa. For example, EE Evans-Pritchard reported that until the practice died out in the early 20th century, male Azande warriors in the northern Congo routinely married male youths who functioned as temporary wives.

In the new, democratic South Africa gay people want to believe their sexual orientation doesn't matter, said Smith. But to many it still does. So gay people find safety in numbers at places where they know they will be safe and accepted.

At the shebeen, the owner, Gundi Dube, a short, jovial man with a large gold chain inside the open neck of his sports shirt, greets new arrivals at the gate, passing judgment on whether it is safe to let them inside the club's cramped courtyard.

Dubi, known to all simply as Scotch, greets one new arrival, a woman, with a warm embrace and announces: "It's OK, she is one of us. She is a policewoman ... but it is OK because she is one of us."

'Aids is killing us'

"This is the new South Africa. We were all in the anti-apartheid struggle together and now nobody cares if you are gay or straight," said one middle-age man. But then, almost in the same breath, he asked to be identified only as Cassie because he didn't want people outside the club to know he was gay.

As he talks he becomes annoyed by Sipho, a tall, thin young man in white jeans and a faded olive drab Eisenhower jacket who dances alone nearby to the loud Kwaito music. Sipho tries to convince anyone who will listen that he is really the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"I really don't like that kind of guy," said Cassie, after Sipho made crude advances.

"The problem with gay men in the townships is they are so promiscuous. It is killing us. Aids is killing us," said Cassie, who says he is still mourning the recent death of his partner of 18 years.

South Africa, after India, has the second highest number of people infected with HIV. In Southern Africa, most transmission of HIV is by heterosexual contact. But a study in Durban earlier this year estimated a third of South Africa's gays are HIV positive.

"I'm HIV positive because of one of the rapes," said the young black lesbian who said she had been raped six times. "I'm just angry. I'm angry all the time. And it is lonely. You are so lonely when you are gay and afraid in the townships."

In an effort to deal with her rape, fears and loneliness, she said she had turned to writing and poetry.

"The smell of hate never goes away. The thought of betrayal stays and remains within my thoughts, sight, senses and deep within my soul and spirit. It has created continuous and uncontrollable anger. It has filled me with hate. It has made me think and feel I am mad and sometimes it hits me like I am worth nothing," she wrote in one recent essay.

At the Nunbither restaurant on a busy street in the heart of Soweto, Temba Mabaso drinks cocktails at a table next to the sidewalk and says she just doesn't care what other people think.

They want respect

"I struggled for 14 or 15 years with being gay," she said. "I am not going to struggle anymore. I don't expect people to love me. But I do expect them to understand me and respect me and to understand that I am not going to go away."

Smith said in most of the rest of Africa gay life has been driven underground by discriminatory legislation and hostility often fanned by homophobic comments by politicians.

Former deputy president Jacob Zuma said in a September speech that same-sex marriages were "a disgrace to the nation and to God." He also said: "When I was growing up a gay would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out."

He later apologised, but the pain he caused lingered in the gay community.

Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana and most other sub-Saharan countries. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe fuelled homophobic sentiment by declaring that gays were "worse than pigs or dogs." Daniel Arap Moi, when he was president of Kenya, called homosexuality a "scourge." Ugandan President Yoweri Musevni ordered police to round up and arrest gays.

South Africa is different, Smith said. The gay community is more visible and vibrant. Because of legal protections attitudes are changing slowly, step by step. "But the country still has a long way to go," she said.

the whole thing is very blah blah blah

It'll be interesting to see how the Constitutional Court deals with the newact, considering that the legislature hasn't actually done what the courts told them to do - to extend the institution of marriage to same-sex couples. So I don't know why we're all calling it 'same-sex marriage,' because it isn't marriage. It's quite simply a secondary union that, although is necessary in the development of our jurisprudence, is not marriage.

I particularly love the articles and letters in the newspaper about how gay unions will destroy the moral fabric of society....as if it hasnt been destroyed enough.

dont worry guys JZ will save the day if elected president

i for one could never comprehend for the life of me, how someone becomes attracted to a person of the same sex. but the principles of democracy ushered by the ANC though not perfect, have resulted in most of us accepting that it is ok for people to be different from us in terms of their sexual orientation and they do not become less of a people. and thus should not be discriminated against. its their choice and just as we can never force anyone to believe in God, we can not force anyone to be straight.

exactly we are all entitled to love who we chose, live where we chose and believe a god or not. That is democracy. Could you see this law being passed anywhere else in Africa? or even most countries anywhere around the world?

It is a sure sign of a democracy that is working for the people. Not everyone has to agree with it, not everyone has to accept it, but us gay people must not be marginalised for who we are.

exactly we are all entitled to love who we chose, live where we chose and believe a god or not. That is democracy. Could you see this law being passed anywhere else in Africa? or even most countries anywhere around the world?

It is a sure sign of a democracy that is working for the people. Not everyone has to agree with it, not everyone has to accept it, but us gay people must not be marginalised for who we are.

I think its a good thing. However its difficult to convince the next person that gay people are actually born gay, even debating the issue is tough when the other party believes that being gay is a conscious choice.

^^ that is trivial and not the focus of any law but one's inward beliefs. There are many of my own beliefs that would be polar to other people for many other reasons, but they are entitled to them if they are just and not affecting the life of another.

^^ that is trivial and not the focus of any law but one's inward beliefs. There are many of my own beliefs that would be polar to other people for many other reasons, but they are entitled to them if they are just and not affecting the life of another.

yes trivial when discussing gay marriage purely in terms of law, and the provision of laws, it still does make the issue difficult to deal with and debate about when the other party/ies refuse to believe that gay people exist in the first place.

Get ur dress ready mo...tom...and co.... :)

When I get married, it WILL be in South Africa. Dysan, if I asked you to be the best man, would you accept? I need someone to hold the Bvlgari ring I expect on my finger.

^^ for sure...i'll fit u into the wedding calender. Dont know if you guys have seen the ads in the paper for "pink wedding consultants"...

Well done South Africa for being only the 5th country in the world and the first country in Africa to legalise Gay Marriage, thank you for our wonderful constitution.

So how did the weekend passed? Were cities flooded with 'pink' weddings? Pls show us pictures, if any.

the papers reported quite a few, but there have been problems finding someone to do them for there are so few people "trained" to perform gay ceremonies yet

well I cant say I personally would ever understand how a man could find another man sexually attractive but it just shows how a liberal democracy is taking shape here. This is a great example of how far we have come in 12 years. And credit to the ANC for passing this bill.

Kudos to SA for being one of the two African countries (together with Egypt) that accept the gay comunity :bow:

^^ even tho the bill is completely and utterly flawed and will probably lead to many constitutional court hearings. Flawed because it contradicts many other laws. it was a rushed job. they had a year, but left it to last min. i am glad we have a law for gay marriage, but wish it was managed better

but the only one that legally does mate

I think its a good thing. However its difficult to convince the next person that gay people are actually born gay, even debating the issue is tough when the other party believes that being gay is a conscious choice.

This should not even be the point. It is so full of shit. When all people of all skin colours were given equal rights, I cannot recall a single person who had to prove that he or she was born black. :)

Even Canada's current Conservative government is revisiting the issue of gay marriage this week. Ridiculous and backwards.

Either way, it's apparently just the Conservatives' way of making some changes within themselves and provoking change within themselves. Luckily, most news articles/letters I've read say, "We've moved on" and I am pretty sure that most Canadians have.

It's impressive that as Canada considers revisiting such a topic in parliament, South Africa has done just the opposite. I'm excited for you guys!