Congratulations to all of our LGBTI family in Bermuda

As all LGBTI Australians are painfully aware (and hopefully non-LGBTI Australians are too!), Australia is yet to legalize same-sex marriage.

Despite the Australian government having the constitutional power to literally just amend the offending Act right now (The federal Marriage Act Section 5 (1), amended in 2004, defines marriage as “the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life”), they keep deferring the inevitable – even going so far as pretending that making the whole country vote on marriage equality in a nation-wide plebiscite was a good idea!

Well, here is some news that again highlights just how behind the times Australia is: Bermuda, as in the small cluster of islands in British North America whose female citizens were only given the legal right to vote in 1944, has legalized same-sex marriage.

The marriage equality win was achieved in the Bermudan Supreme Court on May 5, 2017. The case was brought last July by Winston Godwin and Greg DaRoche, a Toronto-based Bermudian and Canadian gay couple. Although they could legally marry in Canada, they wanted to marry in Godwin’s home country. Now the court has found that Bermuda’s Human Rights Act takes primacy over the Matrimonial Causes Act, which bars same-sex marriage.

When a country with a population of 65, 235, most known for the cute, colourful shorts that share its name achieves marriage equality before you, you know you’re falling behind.

Come on Australia, make same-sex marriage legal. The sky didn’t fall on Bermuda, and it’s not going to here.