CIVIL UNIONS, ORGANISATIONAL MAILINGS AND PUBLIC HEARINGS

* Praise God for a very good response to our call to prayer to stop same-sex marriage. Please continue to intercede daily for God to have mercy on our nation and give parliament.

* The governments proposed ‘Civil Unions bill’ is in many respects a disaster that will if passed undermine marriage even more than the Constitutional Court decision and still will not satisfy the Constitutional Court. Unlike ‘Civil Unions’ elsewhere in the world, this bill essentially allows same-sex partners identical rights to married couples, but just gives it a different name for legal purposes. For the purposes of the ceremony, they may call it ‘marriage’. The ‘Civil Unions’ name is misleading and essentially is an attempt to compromise to pacify the Christian population. This however will not satisfy the Constitutional Court, since they explicitly forbade such a ‘separate but equal’ alternative in their 1st December ruling. It is thus a waste of time and the court is likely to strike down the provisions for same-sex civil unions and legalise full same-sex marriage anyway unless a Constitutional Amendment is passed.

What makes the proposal worse though is that the same bill also legalises ‘domestic partnerships’ – essentially state recognition and extra legal rights for heterosexual and homosexual couples who fornicate and live together outside of marriage. This, if passed is likely to lead to more children born out of wedlock, less people getting married and possibly even more social damage than same-sex marriage. We therefore need to oppose this proposal as strongly as we can. The attached Bill is not final and may change by the time of the public hearings.

* An effective way to lobby parliament is to post a letter on behalf of your organisation or denomination to all 450 parliamentarians. If you wish to do so, Defend Marriage will be happy to help you with advice on drafting your letter and share a mailing list of parliamentarians for you to send it to. If you are an organisational leader, please consider doing so. If not, speak to your leader.

* Public hearings will soon be held in all provinces and at parliament. Please prepare to make presentations in your provincial area. We also need to protest the lack of time for consultation.

PROGRAMME FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS

19 Sept - Soweto, Gauteng – this may also be postponed due to the first reading debate on the same day.
21 Sept –Polokwane, Limpopo,
26 Sept – Welkom, Free State
28 Sept – Nelspruit, MP
30 Sept – Pietermaritzburg, KZN

2 Oct – Umtata, EC
4 Oct – Phokeng in Rustenburg, NW
5 Oct – Upington, NC
9 Oct – Seapoint, WC
10 – 11 Oct – Parliament
12 – 13 Oct – Stakeholder public hearings – Parliament
16 – 19 Oct – Committee Deliberations
20 October – vote in the Committee


Please contact the Home Affairs Committee clerks, Mr Mankge 021 4033826 or 0721864205 or Ms Dineo Martin 021 4033601 for further details on dates, times and venues. It is very important that civil society, particularly churches attend these public hearings and make oral submissions.

Written submissions and petitions can be addressed to: The Chairperson, Home Affairs Portfolio Committee, National Assembly, P O Box 15, Cape Town, 8000, referring to the Civil Union Bill B 26 – 2006. Fax 021 403 2808 (Mr Mankge – mmankge@parliament.gov.za) or fax 021 403 2854 (Ms Martin – dmartin@parliament.gov.za).