Bermuda

Same-sex marriage is a highly controversial issue that Bermudian courts and Parliament have addressed with varying outcomes. In 2017, the Supreme Court in Godwin & DeRoche v Registrar General and others determined that restricting the definition of marriage to the union between a man and a woman contravened the Human Rights Act. The decision was deemed to have legalized same-sex marriage, and same-sex couples subsequently got married. In 2018, however, the Parliament of Bermuda enacted the Domestic Partnerships Act to clarify the law on marriage and enact alternative provisions for same-sex couples. The Domestic Partnership Act expressly stated in Section 53 that, notwithstanding any provisions in the Human Rights Act or the Supreme Court’s judgment in Godwin and DeRoche v The Registrar General and others, a marriage is void unless the parties are respectively male and female. The Domestic Partnership Act, however, extended certain rights to same-sex couples similar to those of married different-sex couples. These include rights governing inheritance, property, maintenance, and financial provision. 

Section 53 of the Domestic Partnership Act was successfully challenged before lower courts on the basis that the restriction of marriage was unconstitutional. In 2022, the Attorney General of Bermuda appealed to Bermuda’s highest court and won. The Privy Council decided that the State’s restriction of the institution of marriage to “male and female” while providing an alternative legal framework for the recognition and protection of same-sex unions was not unconstitutional. Consequently, as of 2022, same-sex marriage is not allowed in Bermuda.

* Outright research indicates that the bodily autonomy of intersex people is not respected and protected in this country.