The Supreme Court of Bermuda has legalized same-sex marriage in Bermuda for the second time in the commonwealth’s history.
Less than a year after legalizing same-sex marriage in 2017, the Bermuda Senate voted to end legal same-sex marriage and approve the Domestic Partnership Act. In those short seven months there were six same-sex marriages which were allowed to stay legally binding after the decision was reversed.
In response to the reversal, supporters of marriage equality began to boycott Bermuda, which was seen to have the opposite desired effect.
“It paves the way for LGBTQ Bermudians to become society’s scapegoat, to be blamed for any slide in foreign tourism and negative impact on the country’s economy,” shared Jessica Stern, executive director of OutRight Action International in a letter to the NY Times. “It risks increasing discrimination against a minority group whose rights have already been breached by the revocation of marriage equality.”
Earlier in 2018, lawyer Mark Pettingill, the lawyer representing Greg DeRoche and Winston Godwin in 2017 — filed a motion on behalf of a client to challenge the Domestic Partnership Act and its constitutionality. An additional motion was filed by OUTBermuda and Maryellen Jackson to the Bermuda Supreme Court which stated that revoking same-sex marriage was against the constitution.
Both cases were heard together by the Bermuda Supreme Court, ending with the re-legalization of same-sex marriage.
