British Parliament to debate Bermuda’s ban on same-sex marriage

Bermuda’s controversial move to ban same-sex marriage is to be debated by British politicians next week as this British Overseas Territory waits for a final decision by Governor John Rankin.

Labour MP Chris Bryant has asked for an adjournment debate on the subject, which will take place at the end of next Monday’s session in the House of Commons in London, the Royal Gazette newspaper reported.

Legislation passed last month

The new David Burt government in Bermuda is awaiting a decision by Rankin on the Domestic Partnership Act 2017 that was designed to replace same-sex marriage with civil unions. The legislation was passed in Parliament last month, but Rankin is yet to give it royal assent and sign it into law.

Lawyer and former attorney general Mark Pettingill, who was a member of the previous One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) administration until he resigned from the party, said that, from a constitutional perspective, it was “appropriate” and “proper” for the UK debate to take place.

He told the newspaper that he hoped it would lead to a “consensus in the British parliament that surely has to carry some weight”.

Britain should stay out

But political commentator Charles Jeffers said Britain should stay out of the internal affairs of a self-governing territory, even if it remained under UK sovereignty.

Jeffers said he doubted if the debate was “going to go anywhere.

The judgment was the result of a lawsuit brought by a gay couple, Winston Godwin, a Bermudian, and his Canadian partner Greg DeRoche, against the Registrar-General’s decision to refuse to post their wedding banns.

The pair eventually wed in Canada but at least half a dozen gay couples have been married on the island. Until the Governor makes a ruling on the bill gay couples can continue to get married here as well as at sea on Bermuda-registered cruise ships.