INTRODUCTION

Now we come to the final of the three political-moral controversies addressed in this book: same-sex unions. I explained in Chapter 4 that we who affirm the morality of human rights, because we affirm it, should press our government to enact and enforce laws and policies aimed at preventing human beings from violating human beings or otherwise causing unwarranted human suffering. Some of the laws we should support are directed to government itself – say, a law that forbids legisators and other government officials from discriminating on certain bases. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which entered into force in 1996, provides us, in subsection 9(3), with a relatively recent example of such a law:

In this chapter, I articulate a general non-discrimination ideal and explain why we who affirm the morality of human rights should be committed to this ideal – in particular, why we should want this ideal to be embodied in our law as a limitation on governmental power.