Gay marriage in South Africa

Well, here's part of an AP article entitled, "S. Africa parliament OKs gay marriages":

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - The South African parliament on Tuesday approved new legislation recognizing gay marriages — a first for a continent where homosexuality is largely taboo.
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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.
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"When we attained our democracy, we sought to distinguish ourselves from an unjust painful past, by declaring that never again shall it be that any South African will be discriminated against on the basis of color, creed culture and sex," Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told the National Assembly.

As John Aravosis noted on AMERICAblog, we are now behind South Africa in terms of civil and human rights. Sad.