Dominican Rep. Allows U.K. Embassy to Wed Gay Couple, But Won't Recognize Vows

The first same-sex couple to be legally married by a foreign embassy in the Dominican Republic has exchanged vows inside the British mission there, but the marriage won't be recognized outside the embassy's walls, according to Pink News.

Names of the married couple, one a British national, the other a Domican man, were not immediately available. However, an official at the Dominican foreign ministry confirmed to London-based Pink News that the men's nuptials would not be legally binding on Dominican soil.

"Our legislation does not recognize this type of marriage," said Miguel Medina in a written statement.

British Consulates in Australia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, and Vietnam can conduct same-sex weddings because those countries don't have marriage equality and because local authorities have authorized the U.K.'s missions to perform them, reports Pink News.

The British Embassy in Santo Domingo tweeted last week, "First #SameSexWedding in @ukindomrep and in the #Caribbean between British and Dominican national @UKinCaribbean."

A Staunchly Conservative Society
Religious leaders in the Dominican Republic are furious over the gay couple's marriage inside the British Embassy. The chair of the Dominican Council of Evangelical Churches said it "brings a curse to the nation," according to Pink News.

Last year, a public performance commission paramount to a morals committee called off a Miley Cyrus concert because it would "offend the morals, good customs and relationship between friendly countries" because of "Cyrus' common engagement in acts during her concerts that defy morals and customs in ways usually penalized by Dominican law."

The commission also claimed Cyrus "uses inadequate attire, corrupts language, uses perverse imagery and phrasing, uses phrases with double meanings, glorifies crime, violence and denigrating acts against civility and promotes sex, lesbian sex and the use of inadequate [sic] objects in public."

LGBT Pride Grows in Santa Domingo
Although antigay policies prevail in government, a seventh annual "Caravan of Gay Pride" event was held in the capital of Santo Domingo last year. The Advocate posted some amazing photos of that event in June of 2014, courtesy of local photographer, Carlos Rodriguez.

As it happens, James Wally Brewster, the United States' ambassador to the Dominican Republic is an out, married man.