Ellen DeGeneres [YouTube]
Ellen DeGeneres has joined the Boycott Bermuda bandwagon, encouraging people to skip vacationing on the island which recently revoked same-sex marriage rights.
The talk show host tweeted on Thursday to her 77 million followers, ‘Bermuda just banned marriage equality. I guess I’m canceling my trip. Anybody else?’
Bermuda just banned marriage equality. I guess I’m canceling my trip. Anybody else? https://t.co/c5bwUbyjZt pic.twitter.com/VpT5QQAFsq
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 7, 2018
In February, Bermuda’s Governor John Rankin signed the Domestic Partnership Act 2017, legislation which ended marriage equality.
By signing the bill, Bermuda became the first and only nation in the world to cancel marriage equality. Same-sex marriages were legal on the island for just nine months.
The Domestic Partnership Act 2017 clarifies that ‘a marriage is void unless the parties are respectively male and female.’
Same-sex marriage became legal in Bermuda in May 2017 following a Supreme Court ruling. Winston Godwin and his Canadian fiancé, Greg DeRoche were the original plaintiffs in that case.
However, when the Progressive Labour Party gained a majority in the Bermuda Parliament after the July 2017 elections, MP Wayne Furbert announced his intention to introduce a bill banning same-sex marriage.
That bill passed the House by a 24-10 vote and the Senate by an 8-3 vote in December.
Same-sex couples are still permitted to enter into domestic partnerships. The Bermuda government says that domestic partnerships will offer equal rights as marriage.
Bermuda’s Minister of Home Affairs Walton Brown said the act ‘gives same-sex couples rights equivalent to those enjoyed by heterosexual married couples’.
‘The Act is intended to strike a fair balance between two currently irreconcilable groups in Bermuda,’ Brown added. ‘By restating that marriage must be between a male and a female while at the same time recognising and protecting the rights of same-sex couples.’
A lawsuit has already been filed to reverse the same-sex marriage ban.
Tourism accounted for $431 million (€350 million) of the Bermudan economy in 2017, according to the Bermuda Tourism Authority.