Cayman Islands couple hail court ruling upholding same-sex partnerships

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LONDON (Reuters) -A Cayman Islands’ law legalising same-sex civil partnerships was upheld by a London court on Monday, after a long-running legal battle, in a ruling hailed by campaigners and the couple who brought the initial case more than five years ago.

London’s Privy Council, the final court of appeal for the British overseas territory, rejected an appeal that had argued the Caribbean islands’ governor had no right to enact the bill, after lawmakers had rejected similar legislation.

The change in the law came in 2020 following a landmark court case brought by a lesbian couple – Caymanian lawyer Chantelle Day and her partner Vickie Bodden Bush, a nurse – after they were refused permission to marry.

“Today’s Privy Council ruling affirms not only the legality of civil partnerships but the essential constitutional principle that when fundamental rights are breached, there must be a remedy,” Day told Reuters.

The ruling underlined the territory’s responsibility to “act decisively” to uphold human rights, she added.

The Caribbean upholds some of the Americas’ most restrictive legislation for same-sex couples, largely due to the persistence of colonial-era rules. A handful of countries maintain laws that penalize sexual activity with lengthy prison sentences.

Cuba remains the Caribbean’s only sovereign state to legalise same-sex marriage, though some overseas territories now legally recognise same-sex marriage or civil partnerships.

When the couple made their original case, the Cayman Islands’ courts ultimately ruled that the right to marry extended only to opposite-sex couples – but that same-sex couples were entitled to legal protection “which is functionally equivalent to marriage”.

A bill was brought to parliament to put that protection into law, but lawmakers rejected it in July 2020 by nine votes to eight.

Two months later, the then-governor, Martyn Roper, enacted the Civil Partnership Law, allowing same-sex civil partnerships, saying the action had to be taken to uphold human rights.

Kattina Anglin, a lawyer based in the Cayman Islands, argued that Roper did not have the power to introduce the law under the Cayman Islands’ constitution.

But her case was rejected by the islands’ courts and her final appeal was dismissed by the Privy Council.

Campaign group Colours Caribbean, which backs the right for same-sex unions, said the ruling “brings much needed clarity that our Bill of Rights is enforceable regardless of the will of a majority in Parliament”.

Anglin’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal working hours.

On Saturday, a few hundred people gathered for an annual Pride event in the Cayman Islands’ West Bay area with pets, food and rainbow flags.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin and Sarah Morland; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)