First South African gay couple ties the knot
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday December 2, 2:10 AM Reuters
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First South African gay couple ties the knot*
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's first gay couple to get married
exchanged vows on Friday, a day after the country became the first in
Africa to legalise same-sex unions, state radio and television reported.
SABC News said Vernon Gibbs and Tony Halls were married in a
magistrates' office in the southeastern town of George after planning
their wedding for eight months.
"I just have one message I would like to give to everybody, that we are
just two men who love each other and who have loved each other for a
long time," Gibbs told state television.
They have been partners for nine years and own a guest lodge and wild
animal rehabilitation centre in Riversdale, a small farming town about
300 km (200 miles) east of Cape Town.
The law legalising gay marriage was signed on Thursday but conservative
and religious groups have declared it immoral and out of step with
African tradition.
South Africa's move to join a handful of countries which have legalised
gay marriage is a by-product of its post-apartheid constitution, which
is among the most liberal in the world.
Gay rights groups sued to demand equal treatment with heterosexual
couples under the constitution's non-discrimination clause, and the
country's top court last year ordered the government to change marriage
statutes by December 1 to include same-sex unions.