October 8, 2007
Bahamas Finally Realizing Homophobia Can Mean Economic Hit
 Adapt or die. |
Like Jamaica (more about that hotbed of homo hatred in a moment), the Bahamas is (are?) finally realizing that they don’t have to like us — but if they keep treating us like lepers, their all-important tourism industry can and will suffer.
Granted, this author of this op/ed for the Nassau Guardian believes the myth that all American gay men and lesbians are obscenely wealthy compared to our heterosexual counterparts — but the bottom line is the bottom line: Stone us in the streets (even figuratively), and we’ll stop spending our money there — and so will our family, friends, and allies.
Anti-gay campaign
The Bahamas needs to decide whether it can afford the damage a “gay and lesbian lifestyle ban” would have on its $2-billion tourism industry, said a member of an international gay rights group.
In an interview with The Guardian yesterday, Brian Winfield, communications director of Equality Florida — the state’s umbrella organization for gay and lesbian rights — said The Bahamas was already treading on thin ice with the international gay community. The strained relationship has everything to do with the very vocal and highly publicized anti-gay protests against Rosie O’Donnell’s Family Vacation Cruise Ship in 2004.
. . .
His comments come as both the Bahamas Christian Council (BCC) and individual activists in the community call for the government to create a law banning the “gay lifestyle” of homosexuals both in the public eye as well as behind closed doors. The BCC was also involved in the 2004 protests against O’Donnell’s cruise coming to country. “It was horrible,” said Winfield. “They got off the ship to be greeted with an enormous amount of hatred and whether that hatred is in the name of God or not doesn’t change the fact that it’s hatred. …”
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The arguments are those of thousands of American gays and lesbians, who if statistics are to be believed, wield disposal incomes very much the envy of their hetersexual counterparts and firmly placing them in the target market of tourists increasingly this country’s bread and butter.
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Resort destinations that once banned gay couples have had courts force them from that position. … An increasing number of choices of wear to go for sun, sand and sea … means The Bahamas is especially vulnerable to losing those well-healed [sic] visitors. …
Back in April, much the same sentiment — “We hate homos, but we’re worried about the economic backlash” — was expressed in an op/ed in the notoriously homophobic Jamaica Star, “Bending ‘backwards’ for tourism?“:
Every day I read the papers I ask myself what the hell is going on. People are stealing phone lines to make bullets; toddlers are having sex in our schools, and anti-gay outrage is becoming more vocal and visible despite the obvious negative economic impact it can have on the island. Already, potential visitors are beginning to voice their concerns about visiting Jamaica primarily due to concerns about their safety.
. . .
There are no jobs to be had, yet the Statistical Institute has the gall to tell you that the economy is growing. … But we’re not going to be creating much of anything, let alone more jobs, if we don’t find a way to soften our rapidly hardening image across the world which is not being helped by this very vocal and very visible anti-gay sentiment snowballing right across the island. From Montego Bay right across to Kingston, more and more reports are surfacing about the mortality of gays and those suspected of being gay, being challenged almost on a daily basis.
We need to understand something. We might choose to remain homophobic as a nation, which is our right, but when we expect people to support our tourism product we have to sometimes bend backwards a little because tourists don’t have to come here. And let me tell you something, if you all think things are bad now you don’t want to see how bad they’ll get if our tourism market collapses, which it will if the gay propaganda machinery sets its sights on generating a boycott against Jamaica.
We have to learn to be more tolerant. It makes better economic sense.
Sapphocrat’s take on this piece:
Well, hallelujah: a Jamaican who hates queers, but realizes that the nation’s rabid homophobia is coming back to bite, square in the pocketbook — and that “learning” tolerance is vital to keeping Jamaica from complete collapse. …
Do I feel sorry for poverty-stricken Jamaicans? I know I should. I know I should be able to rise above their hate for us and do something practical to help.
But you know what? I don’t. What I do know is that when you have theocratic leaders leading the people down an ever-spiraling path of hate and crime (and Jamaica’s leaders and police actively encourage this kind of thinking and behavior), there’s not a damned thing anyone on the outside can do but starve the beast, and wait for the people to take the lead — which I hope the people of Jamaica can do through a democratic process, as opposed to a violent one (but I have little hope for the former).
Will that change the attitudes of rabidly homophobic Jamaicans? In the long run, I believe it will. When they get desperate enough to make the changes their current leaders won’t, they will be forced to “tolerate” us. And, as we all know, proximity — continuing and permanent — breeds tolerance. Eventually, tolerance breeds acceptance.
Same goes for the Bahamas — and for every other country in the world torn between a love of hatred, and a need for ready cash.
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