The Bermuda government said yesterday it would lodge an appeal against a Supreme Court ruling allowing gay couples to once again marry in Bermuda, just five days after a ban came into effect in this British Overseas Territory.
Home Affairs Minister Walton Brown said in a statement that the decision by Chief Justice Ian Kawaley, handed down earlier in the day, would be challenged in the higher courts “subject to any legal advice that we receive”.
Justice Kawaley had upheld a constitutional challenge against the Domestic Partnership Act (DPA) and declared the sections of the legislation which revoked marriage equality as invalid.
His ruling was not set to take immediate effect because he agreed to an application by Attorney-General Kathy Lynn Simmons for a six-week stay to allow the government to decide whether to appeal.
Brown, who tabled the legislation in Parliament last year, said: “we are pleased that the Chief Justice has stayed the decision until an appeal can be submitted.”
Earlier, delivering his judgment before a packed courtroom, Justice Kawaley said the parts of the act which revoked the right to same-sex marriage were inconsistent with provisions in the Bermuda constitution which give the right to freedom of conscience and creed.
