Gay cruise to the Cayman Islands cancelled

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: What was to have been the first-ever cruise vacation and conference for gay and lesbian athletes on board the cruise ship Norwegian Sun sailing from Miami on January 25, 2004 and visiting the Cayman Islands and other Caribbean destinations has been cancelled.

According to a spokesperson for Cruise & Resort Connection, Inc., based in Connecticut, the cruise was cancelled because the speakers wanted a bigger audience. There had only been about 100 bookings for the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender (GLBT) Sports Community Charity Event cruise and the speakers that were scheduled to appear wanted around 500 passengers.

The cruise has been rescheduled for May but will cater towards lesbians only. This cruise has been organised to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness, and will now exclude Grand Cayman in its ports of call.

Meanwhile, Cayman Net News reports that representatives from local churches in the Cayman Islands had formed a petition and gathered signatures to try and stop the cruise from calling on George Town.

Anti-gay cruise activist Mr Garrett Haylock said, "I have been instrumental in getting everyone together and organising this petition." He also stated that he was aware that the cruise had now been cancelled. 

"The petition was passed around the Church of God and the Wesleyan Holiness Churches and we obtained around 550 signatures from the two congregations," he continued.

Rev John Case, Wesleyan Holiness Church, said, "This petition was formed by the pastors and laymen of the churches in response to Garrett Haylock's letter to the editor. We wanted to let the officials know that we supported him in this matter."

Rev Stanwyck Myles, Church of God Chapel said he was not aware that the cruise had been cancelled. He said, "We held a meeting of pastors and concerned citizens in the area and decided to form a petition that was going to be presented to the Leader of Government Business, Mr McKeeva Bush. The petition started about a month ago." 

The total number of signatures to the petition is not yet known, these numbers were due to be collated on Saturday 18 October, and the information presented to Mr Bush at a meeting today between him and the church representatives. 

The issue of gay cruises visiting the Cayman Islands has generated enormous controversy in previous years. In 1998, the Islands drew protests when the Government refused to allow the Norwegian Cruise Line vessel Leeward to dock so 900 gay men and women could disembark. 

Then Tourism Minister, Thomas Jefferson, said in a letter to the cruise line that "careful research and prior experience had led the Government to conclude that it could not count on the group to uphold the standards of appropriate behaviour expected of visitors to the Cayman Islands, so we regrettably could not offer our hospitality."

A Department of Tourism spokesperson further elaborated at the time that a cruise ship carrying a gay group called on Grand Cayman some 10 years previously and residents were shocked to see men holding hands and kissing in public. Church groups and politicians vowed never again to allow a gay cruise to call at the Cayman Islands.

In a subsequent letter to Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based gay rights organization, the British Embassy in Washington said the Cayman government had agreed to review its policy on berthing facilities. 

"The allocation of berthing facilities is a matter for the Cayman Islands Government. But the British Government is surprised that a Minister of the Cayman Government should have responded to the cruise operator in the terms to which you refer," the letter stated. 

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