South Africa Approves Same-Sex Marriage

The South African National Assembly (parliament) on approved the Civil Union Bill recognizing same-sex marriages — a first for a continent where homosexuality is largely taboo — by a vote of 230 to 41. The bill provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union." It does not specify whether they are heterosexual or homosexual partnerships. But it also says marriage officers need not perform a ceremony between same-sex couples if doing so would conflict with his or her "conscience, religion and belief."