FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2005

Contact:
Dan Furmansky, Executive Director, Equality Maryland
Office: (301)587-7500
Cell: (301)461-4900

South Africa's Highest Court Rules In Favor Of Marriage Equality

South Africa's highest court ruled Thursday it is unconstitutional to prevent same-gender couples from marrying, paving the way for the country to become the first on the African continent to legalize same-sex unions. The Constitutional Court gave Parliament a year to make the necessary legal changes. If the changes are not made within a year, then the law will automatically be changed to accommodate same-gender couples. South Africa is now the fifth nation in the world to end marriage discrimination after The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and Spain.

"This is a clear victory for human rights in a country that has learned important lessons about valuing and respecting all of its citizens without regard for differences," said Executive Director Dan Furmansky. "It's not just the United States that is changing, but the world at large. The days of treating people unfairly and denying families the very basic protections of marriage are numbered."

P.S. We are expecting a marriage ruling from Washington state's Supreme Court any day, so stay tuned for developments.

From the Decision:

"A democratic, universalistic, caring and aspirationally egalitarian society embraces everyone and accepts people for who they are. To penalise people for being who and what they are is profoundly disrespectful of the human personality and violatory of equality. Equality means equal concern and respect across difference.

It does not presuppose the elimination or suppression of difference. Respect for human rights requires the affirmation of self, not the denial of self. Equality therefore does not imply a levelling or homogenisation of behaviour or extolling one form as supreme, and another as inferior, but an acknowledgement and acceptance of difference. At the very least, it affirms that difference should not be the basis for exclusion, marginalisation and stigma. At best, it celebrates the vitality that difference brings to any society.

The issue goes well beyond assumptions of heterosexual exclusivity, a source of contention in the present case. The acknowledgement and acceptance of difference is particularly important in our country where for centuries group membership based on supposed biological characteristics such as skin colour has been the express basis of advantage and disadvantage. South Africans come in all shapes and sizes. The development of an active rather than a purely formal sense of enjoying a common citizenship depends on recognising and accepting people with all their differences, as they are. Constitution thus acknowledges the variability of human beings (genetic and socio-cultural), affirms the right to be different, and celebrates the diversity of the nation. Accordingly, what is at stake is not simply a question of removing an injustice experienced by a particular section of the community. At issue is a need to affirm the very character of our society as one based on tolerance and mutual respect. The test of tolerance is not how one finds space for people with whom, and practices with which, one feels comfortable, but how one accommodates the expression of what is discomfiting."

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Equality Maryland is Maryland’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, focused on making life better for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens of Maryland. Equality Maryland works to secure and protect the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Marylanders by promoting legislative initiatives on the state, county and municipal levels and educating the public about the issues faced by our diverse community.

Equality Maryland can be found online at www.equalitymaryland.org .