It ain't racism, but it is about equality

[pecunium]

South Africa just had its supreme court say that same-sex marriage was cannot be prohibited by law.

The decision gave the government one year to draft the legislation making it happen. It was a unanimous ruling, on the part of a 10 member court, with one dissent, of sorts. That judge felt there was no reason to not just make it happen immediately.

It puts South Africa in the company of just four other countries, Belgium, Canada, Holland, and Spain.

Given that this is AIDS Awareness Day, and lots of folks think AIDS is scourge, laid on man because of nasty homosexuals; combined with a general antipathy towards homossexuality in Africa, this is stunning.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

As I said elseweb, it's nice to see the developed nations taking the lead on this.

[/sarcasm]

[betnoir.livejournal.com]

Not to say that this is a Bad Thing, but *heterosexual* transmission of AIDS still runs rampant in Sub-Saharan Africa - South Africa in particular.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I know that. But folks here (which are what passes for an audience for my thoughts... and by here I mean the US, not the cirlces in which I normally travel) think of it, still, as a "gay disease."

Kind of like cooties, only worse.

TK

[anna-en-route.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget the much larger number of countries which have introduced civil unions ( here they are marriage in all but name)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how I feel about that, since I tend to see that as "separate, but equal" which isn't.

TK

[anna-en-route.livejournal.com]

True but in 10 years time when society hasn't collapsed there's a damn good chance that the separate thing will have changed (and in the mean time couples who have unioned will be enjoying exactly the same rights as couples who have married), it's a good start.

It's the most we could get for the moment (and it was wonderful sitting on the grounds of parliment when it passed)

[batosai.livejournal.com]

Marriage refers to the sacrament
it is religion
remove that word entirely and call BOTH civil unions as far as government is concerned

there
not separate, but equal!
same and same!

but no one listens to me....

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Sure, I agree, but right now we have a union which is recognised by the state (marriage) which can be performed by a religious entity, and the state will recongnise it, with privileges.

Unless they happen to be of the same sex.

Civil Unions tend to come without all the privileges, and aren't recognised from one state to the next.

So they aren't equal.

TK

[batosai.livejournal.com]

but that is what i am saying
if you get "married" outside of a church (ie justice of the peace) then you get all those nifty benefits as well.
Instead of stating that union by a justice of the peace is a type of marriage, what if if we state that a religious marriage will be viewed as a type of civil union and remove all legal ties to the word marriage. then we provide all civil unions whether achieved by religious marriage or by non religious means, the exact same rights, then permit civil unions to include same sex unions. as far as the lagal system is concerned, they are both civil unions and awarded the same rights. only by a religious view is the word marriage used at all

see, the problem is you are dealing with people who have attatched a value on the word marriage. too many americans will never allow the word they view so highly (not saying they are right) to be associated with something they don't believe in. but if you stop playing the frickin semantics game and remove the word that they have attatched all the meaning to entirely form the equation, they can't use the value they have placed on that word against you.

i have spoken with many very conservative people on this issue and they are not too small a minority that are fine with the rights being equal, but the word holds religious value to them. we need to respect that belief even if we don't agree with it.

i wish we could get all the people fighting over the word God appearing on our currency to start going to bat about removing the religious word "matrimony" from the legal process so i can enact my plan of making the blanket term for two people joining, regardless of race or sexual orientation, in a LEGAL sense, civil union.

see this is really the only compromise that will work. the religious faction get to keep the word they hold so sacred and the same sex couples get equal, not separate, treatment in the eyes of the government. if they want the same treatment form the religious side, they are on their own.

too many people fight for having the situation go entirely their way. we need to try and find means of meeting, and this is a good one.

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

That's superb news!

[shelly-rae.livejournal.com]

I'm very pleased to hear this news. Personally I don't think the government has any business regulating marriage at all. Seems to me that marriage should be a religious convention and governed by whatever religion one subscribes to. Perhaps we need another way to regulate rules about inheritance, child support, and such that currently fall under "marital law". A legal contract of some sort that all people could have equal access to?

Anyway, I'm pleased to hear that South Africa has made this decision. Especially since the rest of Africa holds such conservative views about same sex relations.
Anon

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

South Africa just had its supreme court say that same-sex marriage was required by law.

I feel certain you don't mean that. Possibly they just ruled that same-sex marriage is upheld by the law, is equally as valid as mixed-sex marriage. But I find it impossible to believe that South African law mandates that marriage must be same-sex, and that everyone must be (so) married.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

You're right, I didn't mean it that way.

I'll fix.

TK

[sistrmoon.livejournal.com]

much like Texas has outlawed all marriage!

http://www.savetexasmarriage.com/main.html

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Excellent! It kind of makes us look bad, but you know what, that's not the point. It's wonderful that they've done this.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Wow. Cool.

B