Page:Du Toit v Minister of Welfare.djvu/24

Rh impugned provisions are indeed justifiable in terms of section 36 of the Constitution.

The impugned provisions do not prevent lesbian or gay people from adopting children at all. They make no provision however for gay and lesbian couples to adopt children jointly. In this regard, they are not the only legislative provisions which do not acknowledge the legitimacy and value of same-sex permanent life partnerships. It is a matter of our history (and that of many countries) that these relationships have been the subject of unfair discrimination in the past. However, our Constitution requires that unfairly discriminatory treatment of such relationships cease. It is significant that there have been a number of recent cases, statutes and government consultation documents in South Africa which broaden the scope of concepts such as “family”, “spouse” and “domestic relationship”, to include same-sex life partners. These legislative and Rh