South Africa legalizes same-sex marriages

It is the first African country to do so and a beacon of hope for all gays and lesbians living on that continent.

The bill passed by a wide margin, 230 to 41, and although it still needs to be approved by the National Council of Provinces and signed by the President, it is expected to become law:

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.
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"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.
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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.

But it also says marriage officers need not perform a ceremony between same-sex couples if doing so would conflict with his or her "conscience, religion and belief."

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.

The bill was drawn up in order to comply with a Constitutional Court ruling last December that said existing marriage legislation was unconstitutional, as it discriminated against same-sex couples.

The court gave the government a December 1 deadline to change the laws, saying that otherwise same-sex marriages would be legalized by default.
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In an effort to ease some of these concerns, the drafters of the bill allowed both religious and civil officers to refuse to marry same-sex couples.

Gay rights groups criticized this "opt-out" clause, saying they should be treated the same as heterosexual couples.

I do agree that that clause shouldn't have been included in the bill, because in essence it says that gays are different from heterosexuals, which is precisely the kind of notion that the bill is intended to dispel.

However, it's still a huge step forward, especially in an area of the world so caustic to gays' civil rights.