Court Blocks Same-Sex Marriage in Bermuda and Cayman Islands
Bermuda’s and the Cayman Islands' governments over blocking same-sex marriage.The U.K.’s Privy Council is the final court of appeals for several Caribbean islands that are British territories, according to the Associated Press.
It sided not only with Bermuda’s government in making same-sex marriage illegal for a third time, but also found that queer people don’t have a right to same-sex marriage based on the Cayman Islands’ constitution.Activists had hoped that a favorable ruling would assist in creating a more LGBTQ-friendly sentiment in the region, which is known for its traditional stances on same-sex marriage.
As the AP notes, colonial-era antisodomy laws are still in the law books.“It’s taken us some time to get here. ... We’ve had to jump over a few hurdles.
It would definitely act as a beacon of hope for the entire region," Billie Bryan, founder and president of Colors Cayman, a nonprofit advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights, told the news agency.“The Privy Council has done nothing more, by its decision, than reassert the oppressive political environment of yesteryear,” Bryan said.The council wrote in its ruling in the case of Bermuda that the history of marriage is “one of the stigmatization, denigration, and victimization of gay people, and that the restriction of marriage to opposite-sex couples may create among gay people a sense of exclusion and stigma.”But, it added: “international instruments and other countries’ constitutions cannot be used to read into (Bermuda's constitution) a right to the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.”One of the five judges dissented, the AP reports.“Our work will go on. #OutBermuda continues to advocate for equality, justice and dignity for all #LGBTQ+ Bermudians.
