South Africa has the world's most progressive constitution. We're talking anti-discrimination, gay marriage - the works. Yet, for some reason, a judge in the Rainbow Nation has decided that being portrayed as gay somehow counts as defamation.

You'll recall that a school deputy principal brought three students to court after the juvenile jokesters fabricated photos of him and another educator in provocatively bent positions.

The principal, Louis Dey, described the situation as "humiliating" and cried to the judge that he was "belittled." And the judge agreed!

A former Waterkloof High School deputy principal has been awarded R45,000 for defamation after three pupils in 2006 distributed a doctored picture of him masturbating with the principal.

The Pretoria High Court ordered Hennie le Roux, 18, Christiaan Gildenhuys, 19, and Reinhard Janse van Rensburg, 19, to pay Dr Louis Dey the damages because they had humiliated and insulted him.

The picture, which showed two naked men masturbating on a couch next to one another, was doctored to include the faces of Dey and Principle Dr Christoff Becker and was widely distributed among school pupils.

Judge Ben du Plessis said that while the image was obviously fake and amateurish, it suggested that the Dey had low moral values and would make a viewer wonder about his sexual orientation.

This shit makes us sick. Obviously these kids were in the wrong - you shouldn't be doctoring photos to show someone doing something they didn't do - but the fact that the judge took Dey's side only perpetuates ideas that being gay is something to be ashamed of - not the type of lesson a judge should be spreading.

South African Judge Edwin Cameron is not doubt on the edge of his seat!

The openly gay law-lover stands alongside four finalists for a seat on the nation's Constitutional Court. His HIV-positive status, however, may complicate matters:

[Cameron] was grilled on Monday by the Judicial Services Commission with a series of tough questions.

When asked if he had been out of line as a judge for being so public with his criticism of former president Mbeki's stance on HIV and Aids, Cameron said that he could not keep silent on the "morally imperative" issue.

"I thought I was going to die at the end of 1997. I was desperately sick, but my life was given back to me [thanks to anti-retroviral treatment] and I felt that I had to speak up."

He told the Commission however, that should he be appointed to the Constitutional Court, he would recuse himself from hearing cases that related to HIV and Aids.

President Kgalema Motlanthe will make the final decision on whether Cameron gets the slot.

Poor baby!

South African educator Dr Louis Dey has filed a defamation lawsuit against three high schoolers after the boys distributed a doctored porn picture featuring Dey and a colleague "masturbating." Dey was so "humiliated" that he had to leave his gig at the school and move elsewhere:

A former vice-principal of Hoërskool Waterkloof became extremely emotional on Thursday as he told the Pretoria High Court how three pupils manipulated a picture of two naked gay men - sitting snug together on a couch while masturbating - by substituting their faces with those of the school's principal and vice-principal.
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A tearful Dey told Judge Ben du Plessis that he was so humiliated and belittled by this that he could not bear facing the pupils.

I honestly felt like just sitting in my office and not coming out. I wanted to crawl into a hole."

Though the boys have been punished at school and have been assigned community service, Dey's still asking for monetary compensation. So, basically, this whiner is trying to take these kids' milk money. And, of course, setting a bad example by claiming being "gay" counts as something inhumane.