Bermuda: LGBT People

(asked on 8th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the status of LGBT+ rights in Bermuda.


Answered by
Alan Duncan Portrait
Alan Duncan
This question was answered on 23rd February 2018

The Domestic Partnership Act will withdraw the entitlement for same sex couples to marry and replace it with a provision for domestic partnerships for all couples, regardless of gender. Same sex couples entering into a 'domestic partnership' will be entitled to the same benefits as married couples. Those who have been legally married in Bermuda since the Supreme Court decision in May 2017, will retain their married status and have the same legal rights as those in domestic partnerships. The Supreme Court ruling permitted same sex couples in Bermuda to marry, but it did not address the entitlement of same sex couples to the same benefits as opposite sex married couples. The Act now put those rights on a clear statutory footing. Less than a year ago, same sex couples had no legal recognition at all under Bermudian law.

The Minister for the Commonwealth and the UN raised the issue of human rights including LGBT rights and the need to ensure that our collective human rights obligations are upheld, in his meeting with the Bermuda Premier in October 2017, and at the Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council in November 2017.

Officials have engaged on a regular basis with the Government of Bermuda, and with all of the Overseas Territories to encourage and promote LGBT equality.

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