Roderick is the client in a legal case challenging Bermuda’s 2018 passage of the Domestic Partnership Act, a law that stripped away the right for same-sex couples to marry, offering domestic partnerships instead. We’ve won at the Supreme Court level, but the Bermuda Government is planning to appeal to the highest level, the Privy Council in London.

For further context, in 2017, lawyer Mark Pettingill sued the Bermuda Government for same-sex marriage rights, on behalf of clients Winston Godwin and Greg DeRoche. In May of 2017, they won, and SSM was legalized in Bermuda. In July a new Government was formed, having campaigned on a promise to roll back SSM rights. The Domestic Partnership Act is the law that fulfilled that promise, and the Governor signed it into law in February of 2018.

Shortly after, we launched our legal challenge, and were joined by another case brought by OUTBermuda, Gabby Jackson, and others. Together, we won in the Bermuda Supreme Court in June of 2018. The Bermuda Government appealed to the Appeals Court, which ruled against them. Same-sex marriages were made legal in Bermuda from November of 2018 until March 14th, 2022 when the Government succeeded in their final appeal to the Privy Council in London.

Bermuda had its first ever Pride celebrations on August 31st, 2019.