Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: Cayman Islands
May 7th, 2008
The Caymanian Compass is getting a great deal of attention from their reporting of the police response to Aaron Chandler kissing his partner.
Cayman Free Press Web Development Manager Bronwyn Robbins said statistics showed 662,991 hits Monday.
“However, our engineers note that this is a huge under–estimate of the amount of traffic due to server overload and eventual outage due to the inability to cope with so much traffic,” she said. “The engineer’s estimation of unrecorded traffic due to the server meltdown was well over 1 million hits, possibly two.”
Most of this traffic is driven by American bloggers that find the behavior of the authorities to be objectionable and offensive. Reports are placing the islands in a very negative light.
However, the tourism officials are in an difficult position. While potential visitors are wary of traveling to a tourism destination that may arrest them for kissing, Caymanians are supportive of this threatening response.
“The web traffic today is substantially greater than normal,” said Ms Robbins. “The [DoT apologises to gay kisser] story has received over 500 views already and it’s only 10.20am,” she said.
While the majority of letters to the editor were in support of the RCIP officer and against the DoT’s apology to Mr. Chandler, the blog and forums had more balanced debate.
This necessity of appealing to two vastly different audience may be what is driving the multiple and conflicting messages from the tourism board. On the one hand, those responsible for keeping money flowing in want to appear welcoming to potential guests, but they also have to appease those elements in their society who embrace hostility.
Which brings me to my question: While I know that Jamaica is a place I cannot visit, will I be protected in the Cayman Islands?
May 7th, 2008
That apology issued by the Cayman Islands tourism director to a gay American tourist who was detained by police after kissing his partner at a dance club has been called into question by the island’s Minister of Tourism.
Minister Charles Clifford was asked about the incident in which 22-year-old Aaron Chandler was detained by the Royal Cayman Islands Police for kissing his partner several times on a dance floor. Clifford responded:
“All of us in this room and most people in Cayman would agree that what happened in that incident at Royal Palms was offensive to most people in Cayman,” Mr. Clifford told an audience of about 25 people at the Webster United Church Hall in Bodden Town.
This appears to contradict an apology made by the Department of Tourism director Pilar Bush, whose apology to Chandler read, “What happened to you was an isolated incident and is not representative of Cayman.” Whether it is representative of Cayman or not may be questionable, but it appears to be representative of the very person in charge of Cayman’s tourist industry.
The RCIP has an internal investigation into the incident underway, and is seeking independent witnesses to the events at the Royal Palms night club. But since so far it appears that no local laws were broken, it’s unclear what information these witnesses could add to the investigation. This leaves the impression that this investigation is aimed more at digging up dirt on Chandler and his partner rather than the inappropriate actions of a police officer who had no grounds to detain Chandler.
[Hat tip: Stefano]
May 7th, 2008
The American tourist who was detained by Royal Cayman Islands Police for kissing his partner on a dancefloor received a sent a letter of apology from Director of Tourism Pilar Bush. Bush responded on Friday to a letter of complaint written by 23-year-old Massachusetts resident Aaron Chandler on Thursday, the day after the incident took place at the Royal Palms:
“On behalf of the entire Department of Tourism, I apologise for your upsetting experience and want to assure you that the Cayman Islands is a welcoming jurisdiction to all people,” Ms. Bush wrote to Mr. Chandler. “What happened to you was an isolated incident, and is not representative of Cayman. We know that thousands of gay and lesbian visitors travel to the Cayman Islands every year and enjoy their vacation.”
Chandler told a Cayman Islands newspaper that he appreciated the response:
“I should say that, yes, her prompt decision did ease the anger for me a bit,” Mr. Chandler said in an email written from back home in the United States.
“In addition, it’s just good business sense for Ms Bush to have apologised to me. The [Department] of Tourism surely doesn’t want to have someone leave the Cayman Islands not wanting to come back.”
Chandler also said that he hasn’t received any response from a complaint lodged against the RCIP.
May 5th, 2008
An American tourist from Amherst, Massachusetts was detained by the Royal Cayman Islands Police after kissing his boyfriend on the dancefloor of the Royal Palms last Wednesday.
Aaron Chandler, 23, was visiting the Caymans with his partner, along with his partner’s sister and brother-in-law last week. While dancing with his partner at the Royal Palms, Chandler kissed him. A man then approached the couple and told them to stop displaying affection in public. They kept dancing and kissed a few times more.
At about 11:00 pm, a woman approached the couple and asked Chandler to follow her. She took him to an off duty police officer, who then detained him and took him to the police station. Chandler was made to wait at the George Town police station to speak to an inspector who never showed. The original officer eventually came back and gave him a stern lecture. He tried to make Chandler promise not to kiss his partner in public again, and then released him.
Chandler was never officially placed under arrest, according to an RCIP spokesperson. As British territory, the Caymans were ordered to rescind their laws against homosexuality in 2000. A ruling is expected later this week to determine whether any local laws against public displays of affection between two people of the same sex were broken. Chandler has written a letter to the Ministry of Tourism and filed a complaint with the RCIP.
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