cover such socially important areas as domestic violence, estate duty, employment equity, and legislation to promote equality.
[116]While this legislative trend is significant in evincing Parliament’s commitment to its constitutional obligation to remove discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation, and while these statutes are consistent with the judgment of this Court in Home Affairs, the advances continue to be episodic rather than global. Thus, however valuable they may be in dealing with particular aspects of discrimination, and however much their cumulative effect contributes towards changing the overall legal climate, they fall short of what this Court called for in J,[1] namely that comprehensive legislation regularising relationships between gay and lesbian persons was necessary; and that it was unsatisfactory for the courts to grant piecemeal relief to members of the gay and lesbian community as and when aspects of their relationships are found to be prejudiced by unconstitutional legislation.
[117]At the heart of legal disabilities afflicting same-sex life partnerships today, then, is the lack of general recognition by the law of their relationships. The problem does not in fact arise from anything constitutionally offensive in what the common
- ↑ Above n 65 at para 23.
a same-sex or heterosexual union which the Commissioner is satisfied is intended to be permanent. The second two are concerned with the need to achieve equality. The Employment Equity Act 35 of 1998 provides that the definition of “family responsibility” includes “responsibility of the employees in relation to their spouse or partner, their dependent children or other members of their immediate family who need their care or support.” Similarly, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 provides that “family responsibility” means “responsibility in relation to a complainant’s spouse, partner, dependant, child or other members of his or her family in respect of whom the member is liable for care and support.” It goes on to state that “‘marital status’ includes the status or condition of being single, married, divorced, widowed or in a relationship, whether with a person of the same or the opposite sex, involving a commitment to reciprocal support in a relationship.”
