Marriage Equality is here to stay in Bermuda!
News is breaking that Bermuda’s Court of Appeal has ruled in alignment with the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage.
This Supreme Court decided in 2017 that the law defining marriage as being between a man and a woman was unconstitutional. Unfortunately, Bermuda’s parliament didn’t agree and tried to create a new law, called the Domestic Partnership Act 2017, for domestic partnerships. These partnerships would become equal in the eyes of the law to marriage, but remain separate from “actual” marriages. This made Bermuda the first country to ever re-ban marriage equality.
Since then, marriage equality has become a game of tennis between Bermuda’s judicial system and legislative system.
The Supreme Court overturning the Domestic Partnership Act this past June. Then, Bermuda’s parliament filed an appeal to reverse that decision.
Now, the Court of Appeals has decided to uphold the Supreme Court’s ruling.
But, this may not be the end of the rally. The Court of Final Appeal is currently hearing arguments for whether this court decision should be stayed for 21 days. If so, the government could then lodge another appeal to the Judicial Committee of The Privy Council, which is the court of final appeal that oversees UK territories.
We’ll keep you updated as this story continues.
