Gay Tourism

GAY TOURISM IN THE CARIBBEAN

Submitted by: Caribbean Student

DeVry University Online
English 135

26/7/2009

Life in the Caribbean has certainly held many advantages including a sheltered family lifestyle, strong religious upbringing and a safe, seemingly unspoilt social environment. But all is not as it seems in many of the small nations scouting backdrops of amazing waterfalls and ferns swaying gently in the soft Caribbean breeze. There is certainly more than meets the eye as you stroll through the many of the streets of these seemingly quiet, peaceful pieces of paradise. Underneath the medley of exciting Island expression, warm Caribbean sun and whistling hummingbirds lie a growing disturbance; one shrouded mostly in ignorance and hypocrisy; a passionate disdain of gay and lesbian people. Disdain hatched out of sheer ignorance and years of religious brainwashing yet a phenomenon harbored in some of the very churches that preach against them.   It is exactly this passionate dislike for a lifestyle not properly understood that has fueled the ever-growing debate about gay tourism on our Caribbean Island shores. If we as small nations are to progress through the 21st century and take advantage of new and developing tourism products in a fiercely competitive tourism market, we must first strive to understand that we cannot portray ourselves as biased towards any particular type of tourism but rather portray an image of that which is tourism friendly and tolerant.   However, in order to do this we must first strive to remove the shroud of ignorance that grips the people and help them to understand that homosexuality is neither a disease nor a punishment but rather a lifestyle as any other which is practiced by people who are very much like the rest of us in many other aspects.
Many religious proponents in the Caribbean islands share a common belief that homosexuality is morally wrong, a threat to valued traditions and institutions as well as the structure... [continues]

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