The meeting held Monday night at the Bahamas Baptist headquarters on Blue Hill Road was to discuss their course of action.
The cruise is set to leave Port Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, May 30, on the Carnival ship Fantasy. The cruise is sponsored by Gay Days Incorporated and is planned to coincide with Gay Day celebrations in Orlando, Florida. Similar Gay Day cruises to other Caribbean destinations are also planned during the same period.
Newly elected president of the BCC, Rev. William Thompson, told The Guardian Sunday that hundreds of clergymen from all denominations had been invited to attend.
“We will be discussing the gay cruise, but we have a number of issues that remain on the backburner that have to be discussed, but right now we want to keep things quiet until after the meeting is over,” said Rev Thompson via telephone. He added, however, that the meeting held Monday would be the first in a series of meetings expected to be held by the BCC, leading up to the gay cruise if it is allowed to visit The Bahamas. An announcement of tonight’s meeting was also aired on national radio over the weekend.
Rev. Thompson also admitted that he was reluctant to verbally reveal any details of the BCC’s stance towards gays to the press at this time, as he was still trying to “feel out” various segments of the media, having been misquoted last week.
On the other hand, a statement released last week Sunday by the BCC outlined that “public homosexual and lesbian activities, and the open promotion of this lifestyle is strongly offensive to the Bahamian norm,” and the BCC do not want, cannot accept and will not tolerate the intentional flaunting of its moral standards.
The BCC said further that they were diametrically and unalterably opposed to The Bahamas becoming a playground for those who tried to impose their deviant lifestyles upon others. “Unless these visitors are prepared to respect and honour our standards then they should go elsewhere”, said Rev. Thompson in a statement released late Sunday.
In response to the BCC, the Rainbow Alliance of The Bahamas retorted in a statement that the BCC could not propose to speak for all Bahamians, nor the government on the Gay Days cruise issue. The alliance said the BCC was sending a “contradictory message,” as they were saying that gays were welcomed on one hand, but would be excluded if they wanted to express their love and affection in an honest and open way.
Meanwhile, after a calm of almost five years, the issue of gay cruises visiting The Bahamas ignited earlier this year when TV personality Rosie O’ Donnell announced that she and her life partner, Kelli O’Donnell, would launch the first ever cruise for gay and lesbian families to The Bahamas this July, departing from New York.
The five-day cruise was advertised as one with “family values, sun, fun and gay fertility lectures” according to the Miami Herald in January. The Herald further stated that Rosie and her life partner would take their four children on the chartered Norwegian Cruise Lines boat for a week-long voyage to Florida and The Bahamas. They are hoping to attract 2,200 gay and lesbian parents and their relatives.
At the time of O’ Donnell’s announcement, former president of the BCC Sam Greene, said the BCC was expected to respond with more than a comment, but a “reaction.”
Controversy over gay cruises visiting The Bahamas initially escalated in April 1998, after some 800 lesbian passengers on board the Premier Cruise ship Sea Breeze docked at the Prince George Dock that Easter Monday to enjoy a Caribbean cruise. Some 300 protesters blocked the group of lesbian vacationers from touring the city’s center.
Protesters, led by the then Save The Bahamas Campaign president, Mario Moxey, awaited their arrival with the intent of making it abundantly clear that they were not welcomed. Hours after the demonstration had begun, hundreds of protesters claimed to have been “provoked” by two women who hugged and kissed after the crowd started yelling, “Go home, no gays, we don’t want no gay ship!” The couple was reportedly chased back to the ship’s deck. Some visitors, however, travelled to the private Blue Lagoon Island to enjoy a day of sun and fun.
The former Prime Minister, Hubert Ingraham, was forced to release a statement on the matter on March 8, 1998. At the time, he stated that he did not believe that the future of The Bahamas would be placed in danger because chartered cruises by gay people are permitted to continue to call at Bahamian ports. The future of The Bahamas, he said, is not threatened by tourists of homosexual orientation.
“Homosexuality is not a contagious disease and it is not a crime in The Bahamas. Government has not been authorised to judge man for sin; God is the judge; so let us leave to God, the only righteous judge, the judgment of sin. Certainly, it cannot be right that we reject persons, sight unseen, only because of their sexual orientation,” Mr Ingraham said.
Mr Ingraham further stated that whether a private sexual act between consenting adults was homosexual or heterosexual, it was neither his business nor the business of others. “We cannot and ought not try to dictate or to legislate morality. In any event, all past efforts to do so have always failed miserably,” he said at the time.
Tamara McKenzie, The Nassau Guardian
