Gay marriage still illegal in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands

metroweekly.com:

The United Kingdom continued a long tradition of anti-LGBTQ action as bans on gay marriage in the UK’s territories of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda were upheld by the country’s Privy Council, the highest appeals court for many UK Caribbean territories.The Privy Council upheld existing bans on marriage equality in both the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, citing the fact that same-sex nuptials are explicitly banned under their respective, independent constitutions.According to PinkNews, both the Cayman Islands and Bermuda have legalized — and subsequently re-criminalized — gay marriage.In the Cayman Islands, gay marriage was temporarily legalized in March 2019 after a lesbian couple sued to have their marriage recognized by the government.

But authorities appealed the lower court’s decision, resulting in a reversal – although the appeals court said that the government had to provide “legal status equivalent to marriage” for same-sex couples.The couple then appealed to the Privy Council, which sided with the appeals court in upholding the ban.In Bermuda, the government legalized gay marriage in May 2017 in response to an ongoing legal battle, but the government later recriminalized the practice in 2018 before once again legalizing it that same year.

Opponents of same-sex marriage then appealed to the Privy Council in a last-ditch effort to keep same-sex nuptials illegal.LGBTQ activists were understandably frustrated, enraged, and shocked by the Privy Council’s decision.

Cayman Islands LGBTQ activist Leonardo Raznovich told The Associated Press that “the decision was an affront to human dignity.”“The Privy Council has done nothing more, by its decision, than reassert the oppressive political environment of yesteryear,” he said.