The country only legalised same-sex marriage this year (Picture: Rainbow Alliance of Bermuda/Facebook)

While most of the world moves forward, Bermuda just took a big step back.

The country’s MPs have voted to re-ban same-sex marriage, just six months after it was legalised.

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Under the proposed new bill, same-sex couples won’t be able to marry, but will instead enter into a ‘domestic partnership’.

Speaking in favour of the bill, backbencher Lawrence Scott told the Bermuda Assembly: ‘As it stands now, they [LGBT couples] can have the name “marriage” but without the benefits.


‘But after this bill passes, they have the benefits and just not the name marriage. The benfits are what they really want.’

Rainbow Alliance has spoken out against the new bill (Picture: Rainbow Alliance of Bermuda/Facebook)

But Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, spoke out against the bill.



‘I don’t like to accept that it is OK for us to treat our sisters and brothers differently, whether fair or unfair, to treat them differently under similar circumstances,’ she said.

Rainbow Alliance, a Bermudan LGBTQ group, also spoke out against the re-ban.

‘We are in agreement with the Human Rights Commission that the proposed legislation creates a “watered down” version of rights, leading to a separate but equal status under the law,’ they told Gay Times.

‘Ultimately, no separate but equal measure allows for equality or justice.’

Same-sex marriage was legalised in the British Overseas Territory earlier this year, after the Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling that a ban was a human rights violation.