The reversal of same-sex marriage legislation.
On February 7, the governor of Bermuda, John Rankin, approved the Domestic Partnership Act, which banned same-sex marriage in the British Overseas Territory (OT) just months after it had been legalised through a local court ruling. The Act provides for domestic partnerships for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. The legislation and the British governor’s assent to it provoked a storm of controversy, as Bermuda became the first jurisdiction to remove the legal right to marriage after it had been granted.
The move may affect the business of some cruise ship companies registered in Bermuda.
London will remain unwilling to interfere in the domestic affairs of autonomous OTs.
The new Act will feed into rising debates over same-sex marriage and LGBT rights in Latin America and the Caribbean.
