SA gay wedding a hit in US

15 April 2013 - 02:17 By ANDILE NDLOVU
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Tshepo Modisane and Thobajobe Sithole exchanging rings on April 6, 2013 at Siva Sungum Hall in Kwadukuza, South Africa. Modisane and Sithole made history as this was the first-ever traditional gay wedding in African Culture. File photo.
Tshepo Modisane and Thobajobe Sithole exchanging rings on April 6, 2013 at Siva Sungum Hall in Kwadukuza, South Africa. Modisane and Sithole made history as this was the first-ever traditional gay wedding in African Culture. File photo.
Image: Gallo Images / Daily Sun / Alex Nkosi)

The recent gay traditional wedding of Thoba Sithole and Cameron Modisane, which has had tongues wagging, has now inspired an insert on US comedian Chelsea Handler's late-night talk show.

The 38-year-old host and producer of Chelsea Lately, along with her panelists, Jeff Wild and openly gay Ross Matthews, and lesbian Fortune Feimster, this weekend took a break from tongue-lashing Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Byrnes to discuss the April 6 ceremony.

After showing a brief clip of the festivities, in which Modisane said: "Being gay is as African as being black", Handler turned to Matthews and Feimster and said: "That's nice, so this is great. There's no DL [down low] in Africa, I guess. That's just here in Hollywood. That must make you feel very proud, you two homosexual people."

Matthews responded: "It's very exciting. Everybody thought there would be chaos and rioting in the streets if there were gay marriages in Africa, but hey, safari so good, you know."

"Being in Africa, though, they must hate all those women walking around with their boobs hanging out," chipped in Feimster.

Wild had his say: "Homosexuality didn't even exist in Africa until it was brought over there by the cast of Sex and the City 2, when they went to Morocco . true story."

Matthews said: "I was so happy for this couple; I wanted to send them something nice, to celebrate. But do you know how hard it is to track down where a gay African couple is registered? Turns out it's Pottery Hut."

The banter was harmless until Handler joked about the couple's desire to start a family.

She said: "They say they want to have children, and they're going to have a surrogate. It's like, sort of silly to have a surrogate in Africa - they have orphans growing on trees over there."

Her comments upset the couple.

Said Sithole yesterday: "We were mostly upset about her comments about babies. T he video of our wedding is on YouTube and there are different opinions, but we're not happy about her comments ."

He said that though some people in their home town were still "bitter and angry" about the wedding, in Johannesburg "there have been no funny comments".

The wedding, which took place in KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal, has attracted a lot of attention - with some cultural analysts calling it "void" because the Zulu culture does not recognise homosexuality.

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