Gay Cruise Stopped By St. Kitts
365Gay.com,
March 23, 2005
By Fidel Ortega Miami Bureau
MIAMI, FLORIDA—A gay cruise ship
lay at anchor Wednesday afternoon off St. Kitts after it was refused entry to
port.
The Windjammer Barefoot Cruises ship is carrying 110
passengers. The clothing optional cruise was organized by Source Events.
A police patrol boat stopped the S.V. Polynesia, a
248-foot schooner carrying 110 passengers on a six-day cruise, as it was
approaching Charlestown, Nevis, the ship’s captain Cornelius Plantefaber
told the Associated Press.
Plantefaber said three officers boarded the ship and
demanded he accompany them to a meeting onshore. The meeting lasted about an
hour and port authority, police, customs and immigration officials were
present, he said.
“We do not want to allow people on the island who from
what I’ve heard could be naked and carry a certain lifestyle and
practices,” said Oral Brandy, acting general manager of the Nevis port
authority. “We don’t want it to be a part of our culture ... It’s not a
practice society likes here.”
Sodomy is illegal in St. Kitts and Nevis, punishable by a
jail term.
The ship put out to sea late Wednesday afternoon, head
for St. Barthelemy.
The refusal to allow the ship into harbor on Nevis was
met with surprise by an official at the St. Kitts Tourism Authority.
“We have had gay passengers and cruise ships and there
has never been any problem in the past,” said Randolph Hamilton, a senior
manager at the tourism authority.
Most of the passengers aboard are Americans.
It is not the first time a gay cruise has run into
obstacles in the Caribbean.
Last July a cruise organized by Rosie O’Donnell’s R
Family Vacations was met by protestors when it arrived in the Bahamas.
[Home] [World] [Nevis
St. Kitts]
