HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) – Home Affairs Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin says the Bermuda government will not challenge last week’s landmark legal ruling on same-sex marriage in the island.

“The government acknowledges the Supreme Court ruling handed down on Friday last and, upon legal advice, we have determined that we will not lodge an appeal against the judgment,” Gordon-Pamplin told the Royal Gazette newspaper late Tuesday.“While we accept that widespread support of this very sensitive and emotive issue of marriage equality is difficult to achieve, we do, however, recognise that as a community we must be able to have open and honest conversations which help to encourage awareness, understanding, tolerance and respect for one another.“We will abide by the decision of the judiciary and will implement the necessary steps to ensure compliance with the judgment.”In a referendum 11 months ago, voters overwhelmingly rejected same-sex marriages and same-sex civil unions, although turnout was less than the 50 per cent government had hoped for.Last week’s ruling by Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons allows gay couples to marry.Bermudian Winston Godwin and his Canadian partner, Greg DeRoche, brought the civil suit against the Government after the Registrar-General refused to publish their marriage banns.They claimed the registrar’s failure to do so was discrimination under the Human Rights Act to which Justice Simmons agreed, ruling that the plaintiffs were entitled to a declaration that same-sex couples could be married here and an order compelling the registrar to issue the banns. Another Bermudian, Eugene O’Connor, told the Gazette he planned to file his banns in quick order after Friday’s Supreme Court gay marriage ruling, saying: “I would love to get married in my own country.”Before the minister made her comments in the Godwin-DeRoche case, the Gazette said it asked lawyer Mark Pettingill, representing the couple who won the case, if an appeal was likely. “In light of how significant this judgment is and how it accords with all of the decisions in relation to human rights internationally and in the United Kingdom and in Europe, I would be extremely surprised were the respondents to pursue an appeal,” said Pettingill, a former Attorney-General who quit the ruling One Bermuda Alliance to sit as an independent, told the Gazette.Another legal source, who did not wish to be named, told the Gazette that last week’s Supreme Court case was the fourth regarding the primacy of the Human Rights Act over other laws. The source said government lost the three previous suits, two of which involved same-sex relationships, and did not appeal.“It would be kind of odd for them to appeal this one,” said the source.Preserve Marriage, a group opposed to same-sex marriage and civil unions, was an intervener in the most recent case.The hearing earlier this year was told that interveners do not have the right to appeal judgments.