Cope MP Deidre Carter has tabled a landmark bill in Parliament to repeal a provision allowing Home Affairs marriage officers to refuse to marry same-sex couples.

The clause, Section 6 of the Civil Union Act, has long been identified by LGBTQ activists as an unconstitutional and discriminatory flaw in the law that legalised same-sex marriage in South Africa in 2006.

The provision allows marriage officers employed by the state to refuse to solemnise civil unions if they personally object to same-sex relationships on the grounds of their “conscience, religion [or] belief”.

This has resulted in many same-sex couples being turned away from Home Affairs branches that have no officials willing to marry them. Mambaonline has for years reported on the humiliating and degrading treatment received by these couples.

In July last year, the then-Minister of Home Affairs, Hlengiwe Mkhize, said that around 37% of marriage officers were exempted from performing civil union marriages. In a September 2016 report, Mambaonline found that only 26% of branches in the country offered the service.

On Thursday, Carter lodged the Civil Union Amendment Bill, a private member’s bill that aims to repeal Section 6 of the Civil Union Act, with the Office of the Speaker of the National Assembly.

“In my mind this provision was clearly unconstitutional for a number of reasons”, said Carter. “Firstly, our Bill of Rights, as enshrined in section 9(3) of our Constitution, provides that the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on a number of grounds, including those of gender, sex and sexual orientation. Read more via Mamba