Also, he said, what the Beloftebos owners refer to as a “belief system that supports marriage equality” is in fact law in the country “and not merely a matter of conscience or opinion”.

He said it was a “false dichotomy” for the Beloftebos owners to argue that they were being forced to either “break the law or abandon their beliefs”.

He also rejected outright their idea that only heterosexual marriages could save the world from social ills.

He said these were “bald assertions” with  no evidence, that “our law recognises that there is no-one paradigm of family life and no optimal family model”.

Lu and Thorne had approached Coia de Villiers in 2017 in the hope of hosting a wedding the next October that would be “whimsical with a touch of fantasy”.

They stated in the e-mails, shown to TimesLIVE, that they were a same-sex couple and that they hoped the owners of Beloftebos were “open” to it.

At first, they were simply turned away without an explanation, but on inquiring further, they were told “the reasons is that we only host heterosexual marriages” and that this was the “venue policy”.

Thorne said at the time she was “saddened and disappointed by the experience” and was overwhelmed by the support she received on social media when she spoke out.

In January this year, another same sex couple Megan Watling and Sasha-Lee Heekes had a similar experience and had enlisted the assistance of the SAHRC, but had later withdrawn it, accusing the SAHRC of “tardiness” in its handling of the matter.

They then enlisted their own legal representation.

That case is ongoing.
 
Source: TimesLive