South African Parliament Approves Same-Sex Marriages

Another proudly South African moment - SA is now the first African and only the 5th nation in the world to legalise same-sex marriages. Not just civil unions, but full marriage as it should be imho.

“This has been a litmus test of our constitutional values. It forced us to consider: What does equality really mean? What does it look like? Equality does not exist on a sliding scale.” - Melanie Judge, the program manager for OUT

As usual, the ACDP has something insightful ⁽¹⁾ to add:

“We are out of step with the rest of Africa and with rest of world. The international norm is civil unions, as opposed to same-sex marriages. What happened today conflicts with the views of the majority of South Africans.” - Steve Swart, a legislator with the African Christian Democratic Party

NTY article (free subscription required)

Related previous blog entry: South Africa court rules in favour of gay marriage

⁽¹⁾ not!

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Update It seems I was wrong, the original marriage legislation is still unchanged (heterosexuals only) while this new legislation creates a "civil union" (available to both heterosexual and gay couples) which is equal in the eyes of the law to a traditional marriage, but obviously not the same thing. So it's a huge step in the right direction, but not true equality just yet.

Update Kevin has a good-read post on the subject (he has more time to post than I do, apparently :-) including a link to the Deo Gloria Family Church website (which as he says is a great source of information especially if you are a Christian and believe - incorrectly - that the bible condemns homosexuality).