Gay Cruises Draw Protests in the Caribbean

Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said Thursday he will meet with evangelicals in Dominica seeking restrictions on gay cruises, which have drawn some protests elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Dominica has no restrictions on the tours, but Skerrit told The Associated Press that he will meet soon with the Evangelical Association to outline the government’s position on gay cruises stopping in the island.

Dominica, a lush island of mountains and waterfalls that bills itself as the “Nature island of the Caribbean” and is where parts of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies were filmed, relies heavily on tourism revenue, as do many other countries in the region.

One of the poorest countries in the Caribbean, Dominica attracted little more than a quarter million tourists over the first six months of the year –an increase of roughly 50,000 from the same period last year, according to the Trade Ministry.

Tourism officials have sought an increase in cruise calls to boost tourism to Dominica and they have tried to distance themselves from the evangelical position.

No stops by gay cruises are scheduled to stop on the island through early next year, said Peter George, head of Shipping at H.H.V. Whitchurch and Co., the agent for cruise ships stopping in Dominica.

Protesters held a small demonstration against a gay cruise stopping in February in the Cayman Islands, which refused in 1998 to allow a gay cruise to dock. The British territory adopted a nondiscrimination policy in 2001 that bars it from blocking gay cruises.