Madam Chairperson, hon members, I think it is important that we place the Bill in its proper historical context. The roots of this Bill lie in the pronouncements of our people over very many years and decades of struggle. In particular, the roots of this Bill lie in the declaration our people made at the Congress of the People in 1955. In the preamble of the Freedom Charter, our people declared, and I quote:
Only a democratic state based on the will of all the people can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief.
It was this declaration, amongst others, which guided us in drafting the present democratic national Constitution, hailed throughout the world as one of the most advanced at this time.
The Constitution itself does not prevaricate on this question, for it says so in Chapter 2, section 9, subsection 3. We ourselves declare to this House that:
The state may not unfairly discriminate directly and indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
What the Constitutional Court did was not to impose on us the task of making a new law. Rather, the Constitutional Court drew our attention to the fact that we have granted the right to all South African citizens to choose who to marry or take as a life partner. That right is already granted to the citizens of our country.
The Constitutional Court reminded us that, in this regard, we have not as yet delivered in relation to those who prefer same-sex partners for life. They were not saying: Grant new rights. They said: You have already granted this right, but deliver on that right in relation to those who prefer same- sex partners. They said that we had not done so because we had not aligned the law with the basic law of the country, the Constitution.
The question before us, therefore, is not whether same-sex marriages or civil unions are right or not. That's not the question. The question is whether we suppress those in our society who prefer same-sex partners or not. That is the challenge. Are we going to suppress them? [Interjections.]
At this time, we are bound to fulfil the promises of democracy that we made to the people of our country, especially during the long, hard years of struggle. Are we going to suppress this so-called minority, or are we going to let these people, like ourselves, enjoy the privilege of choosing who will be their life partners or not?
By the way, voting for this Bill is not advocating. We are not being asked to advocate same-sex marriages. We are being asked to grant this right, so if you vote for this, you only deliver, you only grant the right to those concerned; you will continue to live your life as you choose, but let's grant the right to those who also must exercise the same right.
We have no need indeed to preserve for ourselves, purely because of the majority of our numbers, the exclusive right of marriage as recognisable in law, while we deny others the same right. Why would we want to do that?
I take this opportunity to remind the House, to remind those who know, and inform those who do not know, that in the long and arduous struggle for democracy very many men and women of homosexual and lesbian orientation joined the ranks of the liberation and democratic forces. [Interjections.] Some went into exile ... [Applause.] Some went into exile with the movement, yet others went into the prisons of the country with us. They accepted long prison sentences. Some stood with us, ready to face death sentences.
Indeed, as we stand here today, we can recall names and graves of comrades who resisted and refused to cave in in the face of probable death sentences. How then can we live with the reality that we should enjoy rights that we fought together for, side-by-side, and deny them that?
Today, as we reap the fruits of that democracy, it is only right that they must be afforded similar space in the sunshine of our democracy. We do them no favour, but reward their efforts in the same way that our own efforts are being rewarded. I have to remind the House that, after all, culture is not static.
There was a time when voting was only for men. It was rejected that women should vote. There was a time when society would not accept that women should vote. Yet, in the 1890s, New Zealand led the world in granting her women the right to vote. Then, in 1918, Soviet Russia followed suit, and then, in 1921, Great Britain followed. In 1924, the Soviet Union extended the right to women. In this country, in 1930, white women, for the first time, were allowed to vote.
Culture is not static. There was a time when you could not even talk about the possibility of a woman becoming a church minister. Today, denominations, one after another, are accepting that women may indeed become church leaders and church ministers. [Applause.]
Oh yes, there was a time when being a homosexual meant imprisonment. Just by being a homosexual, you got locked up in jail. Oscar Wilde, in Victorian England, was locked up in jail, not for any crime, but simply because he declared his homosexuality. Today, Great Britain is a different society, because culture is not static.
This country cannot afford to continue to be a prisoner of the backward, timeworn prejudices which have no basis. The time has come that we as this society, as this Parliament, on behalf of our nation, must lead.
I therefore wish to urge members of the House to look past the prejudices of our time, and grant this right to those who have been pleading with us for so long now so that we may bequeath to succeeding generations a society democratic and more tolerant than the one that was handed down to us by those who preceded us. I thank you. [Applause.]