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PlanetOut News Staff with thanks to Martin Nel, Q Online
Monday, November 20, 2000 / 05:16 PM
South Africa was the first country to prohibit anti-gay discrimination in its Constitution, and now it is taking another step toward equality with a tax break for same-sex couples.
South Africa's Parliament has taken a significant step towards recognizing gay and lesbian couples by giving them a spousal exemption from inheritance taxes. Under the newly-passed Revenue Laws Amendment Bill, the Estate Duties Act redefines "spouse" to include "a permanent same-sex life relationship." The change is retroactive to April 27, 1994.
Although the South African Constitution was the first in the world to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination and gay and lesbian couples have won several victories in the courts, numerous inconsistencies and inequalities remain in government policy, according to the national Lesbian and Gay Equality Project. One such issue the Project is now targeting is refusal by the national government -- which directly or indirectly may employ up to 40% of all South African gays and lesbians -- to pay "widow's pensions" to the survivors of its gay and lesbian civil servants. The South African Law Commission is in the process of reviewing how the Marriage Act applies to same-gender partnerships.
Source : Obtained from
planetout.com
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