Gay Marriage is Legal in Pitcairn



The Pacific island of Pitcairn has just legalised same-sex marriage. 
Yeah, you've probably never heard of Pitcairn. 
We certainly hadn't. 
Pitcairn is a British Overseas Territory about 1350 miles South-East of Tahiti and is one of the world's smallest inhabited islands. 

 It caught our eye because of its rather interesting history.

Whilst you might not have heard of Pitcairn, you're probably familiar with its history because, in 1790, Pitcairn was where nine of the mutineers from HMS Bounty founded a settlement along with the ships Polynesian contingent. 

 You might also remember the 1984 film 'Bounty' starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. 


Today, the island's 48 inhabitants are all descended from those original settlers: 7th generation, in fact.

That such a small and traditionally minded island community could be so open to equal marriage is a very pleasant surprise particularly when we see so many western democracies still struggling with the concept.

And Pitcairn doesn't even have any gay couples living on the island at the moment.

It seems the Islanders just thought well, why not?






And if you'd like some context as to just how remote Pitcairn is, then consider this: they actually legalised gay marriage a couple of months ago, but the news was delayed by a technical fault on the island's web page. 

 The rest of the world has only just found out. 
So whilst in the West, we've been patting ourselves on the back, this tiny Pacific island stuck one notice in the verandah of the town hall and another in the general store and got on with it. 
There's hope amongst the islanders that same-sex marriage might entice some ex-residents back or that it could boost tourism.
The only snag?

In the 19th century, Pitcairn converted to the Seventh Day Adventist faith which disapproves of gay marriage, and the island's only preacher is a Seventh Day Adventist, so it's unclear as to what effect that might have on any same-sex ceremonies performed on the island. 
Still, congratulations to Pitcairn for showing some of the larger countries how it's done. And we're certainly glad to have this small, historically fascinating island on our radar.

We'll keep you updated on any further developments.

 You can find out more about Pitcairn on the island's website.


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