|
 Court Hears Challenge To South Africa Gay
Marriage Ban
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
| Posted: August 23,
2004 11:01 am ET |
(Cape Town, South Africa) A South African
lesbian couple is challenging a South African law that defines marriage as
between a man and a woman. The case is being heard before the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein. Marie Fourie and
Cecilia Bonthuy have been battling for nearly two years to be able to marry. In
2002 a
Pretoria High Court judge dismissed the couple's application to have their marriage legally
recognized saying the matter was constitutional and that he was not prepared
to exercise his own discretion. The women
then went to the Constitutional Court, which dismissed
their case in July last year. The appeal
will likely raise complex and important questions of the
legal conformity of South Africa's common law and the country's Constitution
which provides equal rights for gays and lesbians.
South Africa's Gay and Lesbian Equality Project
will present an amicus curiae or a friend
of the court brief on the case. l
"The Equality Project recognizes that the removal of the common law
prohibition against marriages between people of the same sex would represent a
major advance in the struggle toward securing and equal position for lesbian and
gay people in the law and society," director Evert Knoesen said in a
statement.
Knoesen said this challenge to the common law, even if successful,
would not achieve marriages for same-sex couples. He said that there are still several
statutory and hurdles which are not addressed in the case before the court.
Those issues are being fought in the Johannesburg High Court.
©365Gay.com 2004
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