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26-02-1995
I am a gay South Africa, aged 25 years old, and I am
not only writing to you in my personal capacity, but also on behalf of a group
of gay friends of mine and we want to ensure that we are not left out of the
Constitution-making process.
Everybody would like to think that South
Africa is now a liberated country of equal rights, unfortunately this is not so.
It is fact
that the gay community is discriminated against and we need to make
our voices heard in this regard,
Although we concede that great strides
have been made, we must however highlight the following points.
(1) We are still formally classified as criminals in terms of the law.
(2) We have a different legal age of consent to heterosexual people.
(3) We have no legal rights to adopt children.
(4) Our love relationships/partnerships are not officially recognized by law
(marriage)
All of the above are basic human rights and so long as we are
denied these rights, we are removed out of the "human" category and
classified
as something else. This devalues us as human beings.
We do not ask for
special gay rights, we just want the same basic human rights that apply to the
rest of society.
We know that you, the lawmakers, have the task of
protecting all South Africans and feel that you can help us in changing
society's
perceptions of homosexuality.
We are not asking you to pass new
laws specifically for gays, but only to include us in the existing
ones.
Our cause is not only a moral and legal one. The heart of our
cause is about dignity. We have the right to have our marriages sanctified
by
law, and to adopt children and not to be denied the family unit.
We
contribute as much to society and the economy as anybody else and the time has
come for the discrimination to stop.
Conservative estimates put the
gay community at 10% of the population. That is a lot of South Africans. Being
gay is non-discriminatory.
We come from all backgrounds, all walks of life, all
professions, all cultures, all races, both genders, fat people, thin people,
disabled people etc. ...
Please give us the basic rights that we deserve
and welcome us into the "human race".
If society continues to
discriminate after you have modified the laws, at least we will have the
confidence to got to the Constitutional
Court, as proud South Africans, Knowing
that at least the law is on our side - where they should be - on everybody's
side.
Thanking you with great hope and anticipation.
ANONYMOUS
P.S. I
would love to sign off with my name and address, but because discrimination is
still rife, I do not yet feel safe enough to
do
so.
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