Pacific's tiny Pitcairn Island legalises same-sex marriage
Tiny Pitcairn Island, a one-time hideout for mutineers with a population of just 50, has legalised same-sex marriage, official documents show.
The change to the marriage law was made last month but only just publicly released on the official website for the island, Britain's last Pacific territory.
While Pitcairn's Auckland-based Deputy Governor Kevin Lynch was unaware of any same-sex islanders likely to wed under the revised law, he said it showed the territory was adapting to the modern world.
"I think it's quite a substantial change that reflects their standing in the world... bringing them into line with modern legislation," Lynch told Radio New Zealand.
The Pitcairn Group of Islands consists of four volcanic islands in the South Pacific, about halfway between New Zealand and Chile.
Only the second-largest, Pitcairn, is populated, with its inhabitants descended from the mutineers of HMS Bounty and their Polynesian companions, who settled there in 1790.
It became a British territory in 1838 and remains one of only 14 overseas territories still under British jurisdiction.
Accessible only by sea, it is one of the world's most remote settlements and has struggled with a falling population in recent years.