South Africa: How South African Churches Can Make LGBTIQ People Feel Safer

analysis

Research shows that many churches in South Africa remain "hotbeds of homophobia". This is despite the fact that the country has enshrined LGBTIQ rights in its constitution and was the first African country to legalise same sex marriage - in 2016.

But there's still a gap between the law and social norms. This is visible in the country's churches too. These tensions were underscored in a recent court case when the country's High Court handed down a judgment in support of the 12, predominantly queer, plaintiffs from the country's biggest Afrikaans-based church - the Dutch Reformed Church. The 12 had contested the controversial 2016 reversal of their Synod's 2015 progressive decision to allow ministers in a same-sex relationship to be ordained, and to be allowed to carry out same-sex weddings.

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