South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal issued a ruling on November 30 that may enable same-sex marriage in the country within a year. A lesbian couple applied to the court to change the common-law definition of marriage from “a union between a man and a woman” to “a union between two people”. The ruling is an extremely important victory in a long battle, and is based on a constitutional clause making discrimination based on sexuality illegal. While the definitions in the marriage act still prohibit same-sex marriages, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project is confident that, with this ruling, such “minor legal problems” will be overturned and same-sex marriage will be available within a year.

From Green Left Weekly, December 8, 2004.
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