South Africa's Constitution is the first in the world to prohibit unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. It thereby guarantees equality for gay and lesbian people.

Just as this section specifically mentions race and ethnicity in response to South Africa's past, sexual orientation is included because of the injustices gay and lesbian people have suffered.

Just 10 years ago sex between two people of the same sex was a crime and public displays of affection were considered indecent. Gay people were harassed and blackmailed (frequently by the police), often denied employment and refused custody of their children after divorce.

One of South Africa's most bizarre and notorious anti-gay laws was introduced after a police raid on a gay party in a suburb of Johannesburg in 1966. Amendments to the Immorality Act resulted in the infamous "three men at a party clause", which criminalised any "male person who commits with another male person at a party any act which is calculated to stimulate sexual passion or give sexual gratification". A "party" was defined as "any occasion where more than two persons are present".