Bermuda is another island in ‘paradise’ where thousands of northerners go for a taste of foreign life and a balmy semi-tropical climate, even in the cold season. It is a small island (actually more than one) that has a certain mystique due to its hidden treasures troves of off-shore bank accounts and due to its hypocritical attitude toward LGBT people. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1994. Gay marriage is legal.
For most of its existence, Bermuda had harsh penalties against male homosexuals, making sex between consenting legal-age males a crime subject to imprisonment. Lobbying against such a harsh measure, The Bermuda Human Rights Alliance, a Bermuda gay and lesbian group, helped to bring about a repeal of the criminal code. Since an assembly vote in the Bermuda Parliament, sex between men over the age of 18 is now legal. Despite high levels of homophobia, Premier Ewart Brown said in a statement: “Bermuda is a democracy that welcomes all people of all races, colors, creeds, and sexual orientation.”
Bermuda has had a difficult process about gay marriage. Two years ago it was illegal then the Supreme Court ruled that was unconstitutional. Then the legislature passed a law banning same sex marriage. Then the Supreme Court declared that law to be unconstitutional. So now it’s legal again because of the “freedom of conscience” clause in the constitution.
Name: Bermuda
Population: 66500
Capital: Hamilton - Pop. 1200
Area: 53 sq. km/ sq. miles
Language: English
Religion: Christian
Status of Homosexuality: Legal but not accepted
Telephone Country Code: 1441
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