What was left out of the Throne Speech could be “more deafening than what got in” according to equal rights campaigner Tony Brannon.

He was referring to the lack of discussion on same-sex marriage during yesterday’s speech read by Governor George Fergusson.

The only mention of marriage was during a prayer before the speech by a Pastor who extolled the virtues of unity “between a man and a woman”.

Making “life in Bermuda more fair and more inclusive” by bringing forward amendments to the Human Rights Act was mentioned, but it was during a section on those who suffer from mental disabilities or impairment.

Mr Brannon told The Royal Gazette: “Bermuda — it is time to do the right thing. The discrimination can no longer continue. Stop repeating the sins of the past.

“It is a mockery. The amount of ignorance about this fuelled by religious zealots has to stop. The state has to do right by all. Human rights has to be universal and that includes any same sex person’s right to marry the love of their choice outside of a church.

“The religious homophobia by some is indeed a stain and an ignorance. That is not love. It is indeed the opposite of love. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?”

The debate on whether same-sex couples should be given the same rights as heterosexual couples has been raging for years in Bermuda.

In 2006, then Progressive Labour Party MP Renee Webb brought a private member’s bill before the House of Assembly to include sexual orientation as a protected grounds under the Human Rights Act, but her fellow members responded with silence. The issue has been high on the agenda again in recent months as states across America begin to legalise same-sex marriage.