Page:Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie.djvu/10



Rh doctrines of dignity, equality and inclusive moral citizenship. They establish that: gays and lesbians are a permanent minority in society who have suffered patterns of disadvantage and are consequently exclusively reliant on the Bill of Rights for their protection; the impact of discrimination on them has been severe, affecting their dignity, personhood and identity at many levels; family as contemplated by the Constitution can be constituted in different ways and legal conceptions of the family and what constitutes family life should change as social practices and traditions change; permanent same-sex partners are entitled to found their relationships in a manner that accords with their sexual orientation and such relationships should not be subject to unfair discrimination; and same-sex life partners are “as capable as heterosexual spouses of expressing and sharing love in its manifold form.” Cameron JA continued: “‘The sting of the past and continuing discrimination against both gays and lesbians’ lies in the message it conveys, namely, that viewed as individuals or in their same-sex relationships, they ‘do not have the inherent dignity and are not worthy of the human respect possessed by and accorded to heterosexuals and their relationships.’ This ‘denies to gays and lesbians that which is foundational to our Constitution and the concepts of equality and dignity’ namely that ‘all persons have the same inherent worth and dignity’, whatever their other differences may be.”

He added that the capacity to choose to get married enhances the liberty, the autonomy and the dignity of a couple committed for life to each other. It offers them the option of entering an honourable and profound estate that is adorned with legal and social recognition, rewarded with many privileges and secured by many automatic

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