No doubt one of the biggest battles since 2015 has been the journey for Same Sex Marriage.
From the moment I read the story about a lesbian couple being denied the right to marry on a Bermudian registered cruise ship, we saw a process evolve that showed the best and worst of Bermuda. We saw the religious opposition to equality in marriage for same sex couples. We saw obscene, hypocritical political cowardice on this issue. We also saw “some” politicians evolve with time – sadly still not enough.
The Petition, the town hall meetings, the creation of Preserve Marriage, the resignation of a pastor in disgrace, the non-binding “failed” referendum, The Wayne Furbert legislation, The Domestic Partnership Legislation, The Governors assent.

The HEROS.
When Mark Pettingill said to me, “WE CAN WIN THIS IN THE COURTS” we had naysayer lawyers tell us we could NEVER win. We had folks say to us Charles-Etta Simmons ain’t ever gonna rule in favor of Same-sex marriage….

Well, Mark Pettingill, Rod Attride-Stirling, Ronald Myers and Katie Richards WON every court battle. They won Supreme Court case # 1 when the OBA was in power. They won Supreme Court case # 2 after Domestic Partnerships legislation was passed citing that the PLP Government had violated the Bermuda Constitution with this discriminatory legislation.
The PLP government appealed to the COURT of APPEAL and hired an expensive UK Queens Counsel, and yet again the DREAM TEAM argued successfully in front of the Court of Appeal that resulted in the upholding of the Chief Justices ruling.
Bermuda saw SAME SEX MARRIAGE finally legalized on November 23rd 2018 when Sir Scott Baker announced to a cheering court room that Same Sex Marriage was indeed a right protected by our Bermuda constitution.
NO CREED shall impose its will over another !!
All through the process, Bermuda attracted global press. Sir Richard Branson, Patricia Arquette, Ellen DeGeneres, Billie Jean King were just some of the celebrities that expressed outrage that Bermuda would “LEGISLATE AGAINST LOVE”.
In baseball they say THREE STRIKES and YOUR OUT.
Countless appeals to accept the Bermuda Courts decision were made from StoneWall to Human Rights Campaign, to a body of Human Rights Lawyers all fell on deaf ears as the Premier and the PLP Government continue to push this matter to the final legal arbiter, The Privy Council.

There is no doubt, in my view, that the Bermuda lawyers have this right. They have won THREE times and will WIN at the Privy Council.

THE GOOD NEWS
This “Bermuda legal journey” will pave the way, if successful at the Privy Council, for many other countries to fall behind us. Same Sex Marriage will become legal in all other British Territories still dragging their heels on Equality and Human Rights.

For me, Bermuda lawyer Tim Marshall summed it up best in a recent opinion piece:
“It is ironic that a labour government, which prides itself on being progressive, is in truth selectively progressive.

It views gays as a group that should be treated differently, denied access to the institution of marriage and hypocritically prayed for.

The Government rigidly and without any consideration of the long history of discrimination that many Bermudians have experienced is content to inflict pain and suffering on gays and make them feel less than full members of our community because of an orientation that is just as permanent as the color of a person’s skin.

The Government now intends to appeal to the Privy Council at taxpayers’ expense and, in an attempt to mask the brutal nature of its actions, it distracts and says that there are important constitutional issues to explore and to get right.

As a Bermudian, I am disillusioned and embarrassed that the Government of Bermuda’s tent in 2018 is not big enough, compassionate enough and open-minded enough to embrace gays.

Bermuda has such serious challenges from the overwhelming deficit to a struggling economy, to a crisis in education, to a declining population, and instead of focusing on those issues, the Government is determined to spend its time and limited financial resources on keeping people down.

As a country, we really need to come together and lift people up”.

Tony Brannon January 2nd, 2019