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December 02, 2005
South Africa's Civil Rights Trump Those in "Land of the Free"
For someone of my generation, or older, it is extremely difficult to fathom a world in which South African citizens enjoy greater civil rights than we do here in the United States.
Yet after little more than a decade since the end of apartheid, the white-minority imposed legal code that enforced a separation of the races in South Africa and denied the black majority's right to vote, South Africa's highest court ruled Thursday in support of same-sex marriages.
The Constitutional Court's ruling stated that the wording of section 30(1) of the country's Marriage Act was unconstitutional because it allowed only for marriages between men and women.
"The common law and Section 30 [1] of the Marriage Act are accordingly inconsistent with sections 9[1] [equality] and 9[3] [dignity] of the Constitution to the extent that they make no provision for same-sex couple to enjoy the status, entitlements and responsibilities they accord to heterosexual couples," Justice Albie Sachs Sachs said.
The ruling effectively legalizes same-sex marriages, though such unions may not be recognized for another 12 months. That is the court-imposed deadline by which parliament must amend the law to include the words or spouse after the words wife or husband.
The Independent (South Africa)
Posted by MJuhre at December 2, 2005 10:04 AM