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Marriage demo a gay affair
16/10/2002 12:55 - (SA)
Pretoria - About 50 members of a gay and lesbian lobby demonstrated on Wednesday outside the Pretoria High Court in support of an application for same-sex marriages to be recognised.
Gathering near the Vermeulen Street entrance of the court, the
Lesbian and Gay Equality Project of South Africa members sang and chanted slogans.
The demonstrators carried banners reading: Equality right now,
and Gays and Lesbians are People as they were watched closely by
police.
Project director Evert Knoesen said the Yeoville-based
organisation was supporting the application to declare the common
law definition of marriage unconstitutional.
In terms of the law, only heterosexual couples can be married.
"We are asking the court to declare that a person can marry any
person of either sex," Knoesen said. "Lesbian and gay people should be allowed to choose for themselves if they want to get legally married.
"Religious groups should be allowed to choose whether they want
to marry same-sex couples," he said.
Project's counsel, Refilwe Thulare, said the common-law
definition of marriage should be amended to read that marriage be a voluntary union of two people, regardless of gender.
The court on Wednesday is set to hear an argument on behalf of a
lesbian couple who want the go-ahead for a same-sex marriage.
Marie Fourie and her partner, Cecilia Bonthuys, will ask the court
for a declaratory order for their marriage to be legally
recognised.
The couple will also ask Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu
Buthelezi to register their marriage in terms of the Marriages Act.
If the court rules in favour of the couple, it will pave the way for hundreds of couples to register their marriages, which are currently illegal in terms of South Africa's common law.
- SAPA
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