UK Court Upholds Same-Sex Marriage Ban In Bermuda & The Cayman Islands

Same-sex marriages in British overseas territories Cayman Islands and Bermuda remains illegal. The highest court of appeal in the Caribbean region, the United Kingdom’s Privy Council, has ruled in favour of both governments’ criminalising same-sex marriages.

On Mar. 14, the Privy Council concluded that same-sex marriage should remain prohibited under the Cayman Islands’ constitution. The judges said in an unanimous decision, “This is a matter of choice for the legislative assembly rather than a right laid down in the constitution.” In Bermuda’s case, the judges also ruled in favour of the government, re-criminalising same-sex.

Following a long court battle by couple Chantelle Day and Vickie Bodden Bush, who had been denied a marriage licence, same-sex marriage was legalised in the Cayman Islands in March 2019. However, the Cayman Islands government won an appeal to overturn the legalisation, re-criminalising same-sex marriage eight months later. The couple submitted a final appeal to the Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for several Caribbean regions.

Meanwhile, in May 2017, same-sex marriage was legalised in Bermuda. It was later re-criminalised and then legalised again in 2018. But, the Bermudian government took its appeal to the Privy Council to make marriage equality illegal again.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Leonardo Raznovich, a local activist, plans to fight the Privy Council’s decision, calling it “an affront to human dignity.” Billie Bryan, founder and president of Colours Cayman, a non-profit advocacy group for the LGBTQ+ community, also added that “the Privy Council has done nothing more, by its decision, than reassert the oppressive political environment of yesteryear,” per the Associated Press.

In England and Wales, same-sex marriages have been legal since March 2014, with Scotland legalising these unions in December 2014, and Northern Island in January 2020. The Cayman Islands and Bermuda are two of five British overseas territories (alongside Anguilla, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos Islands) where LGBTQ+ marriage remains against the law to this day.