Video of the Day: Zulu gay wedding

GlobalPost
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While homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries, in South Africa, gay rights are protected and same-sex marriage is allowed under the country's progressive post-apartheid constitution.

But, according to GlobalPost Senior South Africa Correspondent, Erin Conway-Smith, gay marriage still isn't broadly accepted in South Africa's largely conservative society. Outside of the big cities, gays and lesbians continue to face discrimination and sometimes brutal violence.

Jacob Zuma, in a 2006 speech in KwaDukuza - the same town where the Zulu gay marriage took place on Saturday - said that same-sex marriages were a "disgrace to the nation and to God."

"When I was growing up an ungqingili [a gay person] would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out," said Zuma, who became South African president in 2009. He has since retracted his comments and apologized.

"We decided to have a traditional wedding because we firstly wanted to show people that being homosexual can be part of an African culture," Thoba Sithole, one of the men, told Durban's Daily News.

More from GlobalPost: The Rainbow Struggle

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