A historic court ruling in the Cayman Islands last month has finally seen the country legalise same-sex marriage after a judge ruled that prohibitions on such relationships “was unconstitutional”.
The proceedings took place at the court in George Town on Grand Cayman, the largest of the three islands making up the territory. The presiding judge was chief justice Anthony Smellie and around 80 people were in attendance according to The Independent.
In his ruling, Judge Smellie ordered that section 2 of the Marriage Law be changed to state that “marriage” means “the union between two people as one another’s spouses”.
According to the Cayman Compass, he added: “This court is bound not to allow the violation of the petitioners’ rights to continue without redress. The constitution, in its mandatory requirement that the law be brought into conformity, must prevail. The petitioners and their daughter are entitled to the indignities to which they have been subjected to being put to an immediate end by the court.”
Chantelle Day and Vickie Bodden took the matter to court last year after their application to get married were turned down.
After the decision, Ms Day, a lawyer for the couple, told the newspaper that they are “feeling pretty good, pretty relieved, that we got the judgment.”
Jonathan Cooper, another one of a team of British barristers that represented the women, also added that “Chantelle and Vickie should not have been forced to litigate in order to have their relationship recognised in law.
“It’s a scandal that the FCO made them do this. When will this government put its money where its mouth is and mainstream LGBT equality across the board?”, he continued.
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