British dilemma over Bermuda same-sex marriage vote

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Europe

Britain appears to be on the horns of a dilemma over what to do about a controversial law on same-sex marriages passed in one of its overseas territories.

Just six months after a ruling by Bermuda’s Supreme Court made such unions legal, the island’s legislature voted in December to replace marriages with civil partnerships.

But more than a month later, the British governor of one of the world's premier offshore financial centers has yet to give his assent, as is the convention.

In London, the government of Prime Minister Theresa May has given no indication as to what it will do, but Lord Tariq Ahmad, a Foreign Office minister, told a House of Commons select committee that the Bermudian premier has been told flatly that the view from Whitehall is that same-sex marriage “is a human right.”

Most of the UK legalized same-sex marriage in 2014.

The Conservative government’s position could become clearer on Monday when the Commons is due to hear a motion brought by gay Labour Party Member of Parliament Chris Bryant.

British Opposition MP Chris Bryant says the country’s reputation will be damaged if it allows Bermuda to outlaw same-sex marriage. /Reuters photo

The issue has placed an uncomfortable spotlight on Britain’s present and former territories in the Atlantic and Caribbean, where homosexuality is still punishable in several cases by prison terms under colonial-era laws.

Bermuda has made some steps forward, but in the opinion of gay rights activists, not enough.

When the Supreme Court of the conservative self-governing territory approved same-sex marriages last June, many residents were aghast.

The island had conducted a referendum on the subject a year earlier with a majority of those voting opposing both same-sex marriages and same-sex civil unions. However, since less than half of eligible voters took part, the results were deemed invalid.

Nevertheless, the Progressive Labour Party seemed to have taken the vote into account and moved to reverse the ruling when it won power last July.

Senate leader Kathy Lynn Simmons said the the new Domestic Partnership Act reflects "majority sentiment." Crystal Caesar, a junior government minister, added that the legislation will codify the rights of domestic partners – something the court did not do in its ruling.

Legislation clarifying marriage under Bermudian law is between male and female.

Opposition senator Nandi Outerbridge argued that the bill “strips away rights from human beings,” given they were granted only months earlier.

Other critics were more scathing. "This is a national embarrassment, turning Bermuda – who bills itself as a 21st century place to do business – into a theocracy," said Jordan Sousa of the island's Gay Straight Alliance, in reference to the stance of religious groups.

Others damned it as a watered-down version of marriage rights.

Gay couples who managed to get married – there were reported to be at least six during the six months or so – will retain their legal status, however.

Unlike Bermuda, homosexuality remains illegal in almost all of Britain’s former territories in the Caribbean, with which the Atlantic territory is regularly grouped, even as the international trend is toward legalization.

The global movement has given confidence to activists to challenge the laws. In August 2016, a Belize court ruled that the country's anti-sodomy legislation was unconstitutional in what was described as the first such decision in a former UK colony.

Canadian Greg DeRoche and Bermudian-born Winston Godwin won the case that legalized same-sex marriages in Bermuda, a decision the authorities later reversed. They decided to marry in Canada instead, however. /Nowtoronto.com photo

"In striking down Section 53, Belize has also rejected a poisonous remnant of colonial rule," Caleb Orozco, the man who filed the lawsuit, said at the time.

The punitive laws are not generally enforced despite their presence on the statute books. Gay sex in Jamaica still carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence, Barbados a life sentence and Trinidad and Tobago, as recently as 2000, raised the penalty from 10 years to 25 years.

In Bermuda, Governor John Rankin has explained the delay in proclaiming the act by saying that he is taking legal advice, reportedly on whether it meets constitutional and international treaty obligations.

Some Bermudians question whether the British government should be interfering in their internal affairs but Bryant is in no doubt that it should.

“I think the only legitimate position for a government that supports same-sex marriage is to say to those (overseas) territories it must stand there as it does here in the United Kingdom,” he said on Wednesday.

Bryant will lead off the Commons adjournment debate – a short one for which there is usually no vote – and Bermudian media say Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will respond on behalf of the British government.

Top photo: Pro same-sex marriage supporters and preserve marriage demonstrators during a demonstration in Bermuda. (Royal Bermuda Gazette/ David Skinner photo)