{"id":5842,"date":"2018-03-04T14:28:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-04T18:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plataformalac.org\/?p=5842"},"modified":"2018-03-04T14:28:33","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T18:28:33","slug":"bermuda-becomes-first-jurisdiction-in-the-world-to-repeal-same-sex-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plataformalac.org\/en\/2018\/03\/bermuda-becomes-first-jurisdiction-in-the-world-to-repeal-same-sex-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Bermuda becomes first jurisdiction in the world to repeal same-sex marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

British island territory swaps marriage for domestic partnerships for LGBT couples in move criticised as attack on equal rights<\/h4>\n

Bermuda<\/a>\u00a0has become the first jurisdiction to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriage, in what critics have called an unprecedented rollback of civil rights by the British territory.<\/p>\n

Bermuda\u2019s governor has signed into law a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry, despite a supreme court ruling last year authorising same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

Walton Brown, Bermuda\u2019s minister of home affairs, said the legislation signed by Governor John Rankin would balance opposition to same-sex marriage on the socially conservative island while complying with European court rulings that ensure recognition and protection for same-sex couples in the territory.<\/p>\n

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St George\u2019s, Bermuda: the British territory\u2019s governor said the new law reflected opposition to same-sex marriage among voters. Photograph: andykazie\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Bermuda\u2019s Senate and House of Assembly\u00a0passed the legislation by wide margins<\/a>in December and a majority of voters opposed same-sex marriage in a referendum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe act is intended to strike a fair balance between two currently irreconcilable groups in Bermuda, by restating that marriage must be between a male and a female while at the same time recognising and protecting the rights of same-sex couples,\u201d said Brown, whose ruling Progressive Labour party proposed the repeal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

LGBT civil rights groups said domestic partnerships amounted to a second-class status and it was unprecedented for a jurisdiction to take away the legal right to marriage after it had been granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Rankin and the Bermuda parliament have shamefully made Bermuda the first national territory in the world to repeal marriage equality,\u201d said Ty Cobb, director of Human Rights Campaign Global.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel enormously disappointed,\u201d said Joe Gibbons, a 64-year-old married gay Bermudian. \u201cThis is not equality, and the British government has obviously just said, \u2018This is not our fight.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

About half a dozen same-sex marriages that took place in Bermuda between the supreme court ruling in May 2017 and the repeal will continue to be recognised under the new law.<\/p>\n

But same-sex couples will now have the option only of a registered domestic partnership. Brown said those couples would had \u201cequivalent\u201d rights to married heterosexual couples, including the right to make medical decisions on behalf of one\u2019s partner.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups had lobbied Rankin and the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, to deviate from standard practice in self-governing UK territories and withhold assent for the change. They argued that the new legislation contradicted Bermuda\u2019s constitution, which guarantees freedom from discrimination.<\/p>\n

In a debate in the UK\u2019s House of Commons last month, the Labour MP Chris Bryant called the bill a \u201cdeeply unpleasant and very cynical piece of legislation\u201d. After the repeal was confirmed, Bryant tweeted that it would \u201cundermine [the] UK effort to advance LGBT rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

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So @BorisJohnson<\/a> has granted permission to Bermuda to abolish same sex marriage. This totally undermines UK effort to advance LGBT rights.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) 7 de febrero de 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n