Knowing and Feeling Beethoven Through His Music - a Film

Westhampton, MA - October 14, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

In Search of Beethoven - A Documentary Film
Long deceased great artists are lost to our modern minds even as their art lives on. Yet what of the sentient person behind a great opus? The art of film often tries to connect old history and modern times; several versions of Beethoven's life and character have been made over the years: Gary Oldman in Immortal Beloved (1994) and Ed Harris in Copying Beethoven (2006) offered portrayals of worthy credibility.

The most recent version is by Phil Grabsk in his 2+hour enchanting documentary that has been described as "one of the finest movies about a great musician." Punctuating the dominating music are speakers--musicians, critics and musicologists, "all of them lucid, informative and unpretentious, their comments carefully illustrated sometimes by themselves at the piano. There are no dramatized sequences or narrative reconstructions and the music is magnificently recorded, concluding with an excellent performance of the Ninth Symphony by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century conducted by its founder, Frans Brüggen." (quoted from Philip French in the Sunday Observer, April 19, 2009)

I sat enthralled through this wonderland display of Beethoven's genius and I was sorry when it ended, although where can you go after the finale of the 9th symphony? This movie offers a depth of understanding and feeling for the composer as no other film has achieved. There are no actors showing you the facial or vocal emotions of Beethoven's excitements and frustrations.

The observer is exposed to the tempos, dynamics, harmonics and melodies of the music interspersed with personal expressions of musicians who produce the sounds of Beethoven and reveal what it feels like to translate the written dots and lines into sounds that evoke the master's sentient meanings.

The observer is led inside a string quartet or sonata or concerto by the ear and by frequent very-close-ups of the performers' fingers on a Steinway or Boesendorfer or virtually inside the voice box of a cello. The person of Beethoven is not drawn by the filmmaker but is drawn out by the viewer being engrossed in the musical expression, assisted by the insights of those who bring him to life on the concert stage. The length of Beethoven's life is told in music, from opus 1 to opus 137, from birth in Bonn to death in Vienna at the age of 56 in 1827.

This is very much a film who those who love Beethoven's music and who loved being infused with it meanings and feelings--without fully understanding all of it.

(It is estimated that between 10 000 and 30 000 people attended his funeral. Franz Schubert, timid and a huge admirer of Beethoven, without ever having become close to him, was one of the coffin bearers, along with other musicians. Schubert died the next year, aged 31, and was buried next to Beethoven.)

1. In Search of Beethoven
2. Production year: 2009
3. Country: UK
4. Cert (UK): U
5. Runtime: 138 mins
6. Director: Phil Grabsky

9/11 What Happened?

Westhampton, MA - October 14, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

Planes crashed.
Buildings fell.
2,753 people were killed.
An investigation published its report.
We started two wars in which more than 5,000 Americans and 85,000 Iraqis have died.
And life continued on.

We know the sequence of events and the horrible collapse and the funereal search/removal process.

But what happened during the collapse. How did the buildings go down?

The official report said it was fire and gravity, structures weakened then one floor falling on others that could not bear the weight. Sounds reasonable, so reasonable to the lay person that we have accepted the official analysis and moved on to replace the Twin Towers with more skyscrapers in downtown New York.

What happens when outside experts in engineering and architecture and physics and metallurgy ask "what happened"? The eyes through which these non-lay people see 9/11 are different than the eyes that wrote the government report..

These are the eyes of scientists who look precisely, microscopically, analytically at the massive deadly phenomenon of that day.

And these are the skeptics who seek complete clarification of how WTC7 went down five hours after the Twin Towers, and why and if it resembled a pattern of fall like a planned demolition with explosives.

These critics, scientific and lay people, are being given a voice by architect Richard Gage of the organization called 'Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth' . Read more if you are curious to seek more than one truth.

Decide for yourself how the evidence fits with the explanations.

Also see:
Debunking the Conspiracy Theories by Popular Mechanics
9/11 What Really Happened by Der Spiegel Magazine
The 9/11 Commission Report - Official Government Report
9/11 Revealed: the Unanswered Questions by Ian Henshall & Rowland Morgan
The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich

Death of Important Gay 'Hero' Keith Goddard of Zimbawe

Westhampton, MA - October 13, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

Yesterday I received the very sad news about the death of LGBT leader Keith Goddard, director of GALZ (Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe).

GlobalGayz was privileged to meet and interview with Keith in the spring of 2009. He was comfortable to be with, witty and thoughtful--and he was a force for change and human rights. We spent much of the day together including a 'deluxe' lunch at the nearby 40 Cork Road Cafe where we reminisced about our youthful coming out days (before Mugabe) and compared them to today's society.

Keith was given a frail body but a strong mind and was unruffled about the oppression from the corrupt Zimbabwe government, having eluded serious persecution for nearly 20 years. He knew well how to steer GALZ out of harm's way and still get the job done of health education all the while fostering human rights. The high wall surrounding GALZ home offices in Harare is both real and symbolic in protecting vulnerable LGBT people from discrimination.

I am very saddened by his passing. Please read the story about him and the courageous people of GALZ: http://globalgayz.com/country/Zimbabwe/view/ZWE/gay-zimbabwe

Here are tributes to this fallen leader, one from Behind the Mask (Africa), another from UK activist Peter Tatchel and one from Vikram from GayBombay.

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From Behind the Mask:

By Miles Tanhira (BTM Correspondent)

“If more people in this world were as passionate about their beliefs and the cause they took up as Keith was, or even took causes up at all, it would be a very different place indeed. The Keith’s of this world are altogether way too rare.”

These were powerful words said during Keith Goddard’s eulogy in his funeral service held this morning, 15 october, at GALZ resource centre. Activists, artists and GALZ members came all out to pay their last respects to “a man who dared trade where angels feared.”

During the service, speaker after speaker spoke highly of Keith Goddard as a selfless man, who put his life on the line for what he believed in and sacrificed himself for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI) people in the world.

In her speech, a close friend of the Goddard, Rosie Mitchell, described Keith as a courageous and remarkable man who touched so many people’s lives and made an impact. “Keith challenged all of us. He recognised in each of us, our individual moral weaknesses, our flaws and doubts, and he went for the jugular. In doing so he forced us to confront the parts of ourselves in need of examination and scrutiny, forced us to question, the way the world is, everything. He had fearlessness in his convictions that bordered on the reckless, and the world is better for that recklessness, for the world needs people like Keith and there are few enough of them, and they leave their mark”, Mitchell explained.

Echoing the same sentiments, Agrippa Sora, Director of Zimbabwe College of Music said Goddard was a humble artists who had committed his time and life to the college where he was not only a board member but a lecturer. “Keith came to the college when he was only 12 years old and he had a passion for music and contributed immensely to the music industry in Zimbabwe. He had even volunteered to teach ‘O’ level Cambridge music lesson to our new students in 2010. His death is a great loss to both the college and the students.”

Human rights activist and a board member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF), Brian Penduka, added that Keith was a down to earth man and an activist who was dedicated to his work. “He would not demand any money for his work and was always available to do his duty as a ZHRF board member, he did not complain even when things were difficult he always offered to help. His death is a blow not only to the forum but to many human right activists”.

GALZ Co chairperson, Belinda Weale also said Keith make a great contribution to the Zimbabwean LGBTI community and fought tirelessly for the rights of the marginalised. “Today we mourn not only the death of a director but also an inspiration to the whole LGBTI community, as well as an active human rights activist all over the world. Keith has left an inexplicable void in all our lives and our work.”

During the service, some of Keith’s students played some traditional music instruments in his honour. Meanwhile the body of the gallant and veteran human rights activist and musician will be taken to Mutare for cremation tomorrow 16 October.

It is indeed a loss for the LGBTI community of Zimbabwe, human rights fraternity as well as the music industry. Fare thee well, Cadre. Rest in peace and may your star continue shinning down upon us, your legacy and your hard work will be cherished, we shall lift the banner of human rights high up!

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From Peter Tatchell
Gays Without Borders
October 12, 2009

Members of the British LGBT human rights group OutRage! extend their condolences to our comrades in Gays And Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) and to the family and friends of Keith Goddard, (photo right) following his illness and tragic death on 9 October 2009.

He was a true hero of the freedom struggle in Zimbabwe, and made a major contribution to GALZ's campaigns and successes over a period of nearly two decades.

OutRage! is very proud and honoured to have worked with Keith and GALZ from the early 1990s onwards, supporting their many struggles against the homophobia and tyranny of the Mugabe / ZANU-PF regime.

Courageous GALZ comrades resisted state harassment, defended individual LGBT people, demanded their rightful place at successive Book Fairs and defied President Mugabe's many public theats and attacks on LGBT Zimbabweans.

When we attempted a citizen's arrests of President Robert Mugabe, in London in 1999 and in Brussels in 2001, Keith offered his congratulations. He reported that these attempts had a positive effect inside Zimbabwe. They prompted, he said, the Zimbabwean media to interview GALZ many times and to report LGBT human rights issues to an extent that had rarely, if ever, happened before. Keith was usually the GALZ person interviewed and he used these media opportunities very effectively to challenge homophobic ignorance and prejudice - and to eloquently set out the case for equality.

Politically astute and a highly effective campaign strategist, Keith built links with other human rights activists in Zimbabwe in a successful bid to put LGBT equality at the heart of the mainstream Zimbabwean human rights movement. He and his GALZ comrades have done magnificent work to build broad support for LGBT rights in a future post-ZANU-PF Zimbabwe, when Mugabe is history.

On a personal level, Keith was an immensely kind, generous, supportive, warm-hearted person. I remember some enjoyable evenings with him during his periodic visits to London.

A non-sectarian bridge-builder, he despised personal attacks and infighting. He was supportive of myself and OutRage! at times when others were not. In 2007, a number of African LGBT activists were goaded by false allegations into a signing a letter denouncing us. Keith refused. He knew, from many years of working with us that these allegations were untrue. We were very grateful for Keith's honourable stand against political sectarianism.

Keith was also, like all GALZ activists, very brave: unafraid to take a public stand for LGBT human rights, despite police and government repression. He risked his liberty and life many times, speaking out against homophobia and transphobia, even though this marked him as a potential target for state and vigilante violence. The danger of kidnapping, arrest, imprisonment, torture and murder never deterred him.

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From GayBombay@YahooGroups.com
By Vikram
October 13, 2009

I just head the sad news of the passing away of Keith Goddard. Keith (left in photo, with Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz at '40 Cork Road Cafe' in Harare, 2009) was the really nice and very brave leader of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) who continued to live in Harare (where he died after a short bout of pneumonia that was likely misdiagnosed) despite a level of overt hatred and harassment from Mugabe's government that I can barely imagine being able to take.

But Keith was nonchalent about it. I met him when he was in India several years back - and I'm sure there are others who remember him from then. He had come for a conference and stayed in Bombay for a bit, and attended one of our parents meetings (the one we had at Mahalakshmi) and was much impressed.

I remember hanging out with Keith just before the meeting, and like with many visitors to Bombay I asked if there was anything he was particularly interested in seeing or buying. I thought he'd say fabric or tea or something like that, but he had something else in mind. "What I'd really like to buy is a pressure cooker," he told me. "I've heard that India makes very good ones, and the fuel situation in Zim is getting so bad, it could be really useful." So we went off and bought him a nice medium sized pressure cooker.

Despite the fuel problem, and the far worse threats that the thug Mugabe regularly hurled at gays, Keith was deprecating about the risks they faced. "Mugabe's outbursts really helped us because suddenly people around the world realised we existed, and we started getting all these letters of support and also some funding from abroad," he told me. And rather than moaning about Mugabe and the problems he had caused for Zimbabwe, he joked about it, and all the absurdities of Mugabe's rule.

It still could not have been easy for Keith and GALZ. Such overt hatred is hard to take, and so is the knowledge that some of Mugabe's war veterans could just come in and trash the place and perhaps even kill everyone, and nothing really could be done. At GALZ Keith would also have had to deal with the stories of young gay kids being beaten up and raped and knowing there was nothing much they could expect in support or redressal from the government.

It could have been so easy for him to have left, emigrating to Europe like so many white Zimbabweans did, fleeing to refugee camps in South Africa like so many black Zimbabweans were forced to. But Keith stuck it out and kept going with GALZ until his untimely death. I know Keith would probably have laughed at the idea of being considered a hero, but more than most people I know, he was.

Gaining Rights vs Being Privileged--Gays and Obama

Westhampton, MA - October 11, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

Last night President Obama gave a speech at a Human Rights Campaign fund-raising dinner in DC. This is remarkable in itself since no other president has ever given specific attention to a gay organization in a public forum. The press were there and captured his speech on paper and tape and video and YouTube. (Also see the controversial graffiti incident that followed.)

His attendance at this event, the night before a mass LGBT-rights rally in the city on National Coming Out Day, was partly motivated by the disgruntled noise LGBT leaders have made over the past few months in response to DADT, DOMA and gay marriage issues. His speech was an effort to assuage the aggravation felt in our community, by some, that he was not moving fast enough to rid these discriminatory statutes from our country.

The arguments against these laws are clearly justified—but the timing is not. The ‘homosexual agenda’ for equality has taken giant steps in the past five years, especially given how recently we banged down the doors at Stonewall and given how far backward we were treated as citizens (and still are in many places).

Hardly a month goes by that I don’t read of an important two-step forward and one backward across the fifty states. From the egregious Prop 8 in CA last November to the startling marriage decision in Iowa and quiet passage in New Hampshire a few months ago. We are making remarkable progress with our campaigns, money and high-school coming out (and middle-school as well. (See this NYT Cover story) Last week the House approved the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd hate crimes bill (attached to an obscenely bloated defense bill). The bill is also named for James Byrd Jr., a black man killed in a race-based attack in Texas the same year.

But for some that’s not enough. We seem to want it all, now: Obama should have eliminated DADT by now and pushed to change DOMA to include gay marriage!

To my mind this smacks of privilege and entitlement. We have collected some genuine goodies and we want more, now, and this president should let us move to the head of the line to get them.

This does not sit well with my queer mind.

The other night I went to a benefit dinner for a local marine sergeant here in rural Massachusetts who came home from Afghanistan with one leg, a shattered spine, fractured arm and a thousand bits of shrapnel under his skin. If you ask me who I want to see taken care of first, the sergeant or a lesbian spouse, the choice is hardly that. I want our young people taken out of harm’s way before I want to get married. I don’t want any more coffins hidden from TV cameras to help sanitize these horrid wars that Bush-Cheney started for delusional reasons.

I am willing to let these broken and dead soldiers take the front of the line before I can say ‘I Do’ or before queers get to serve openly in the military - much as they deserve to. (How ironic that we want to destroy DADT that sends people out of the service and out of harm’s way and instead insist that gay personnel be allowed to go into harm’s way with the possibility of coming home in a body bag! Is that some form of queer patriotic suicide?)

Not to mention the worst economic cramps for decades. I’d rather have my unemployed neighbor father-of-three get a job than me get married this year.

Have we lost our sense of place and proportion? Gay marriage will happen. DADT will fall. Lobbying works—for better or worse. Military leaders are being leaned on to re-evaluate the policy. They are softening. The public and even straight recruits are changing their minds.

We need to see the change that’s happening before our eyes, in the courts, in state legislatures and stop vilifying a president who is clearly on our side of the issues and wants to see justice and equality in the military and among partnerships.

Get in line for change. Send messages to the Pentagon and Congress. Makes phone calls. Support HRC - or not. Lean forward but don’t jump the queue.

Also see: DOMA Repeal Gains 100th Sponsor

Banquet for a 26 Year-Old War-Maimed Marine: Who Should Police the World?

Westhampton, MA - October 11, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

Marine from Amherst, MA loses leg following Humvee explosion in Afghanistan
Read story here

This evening I went to a benefit banquet for a 26 year-old war-maimed marine, a local resident here in the Northampton area of western Massachusetts--on the same day Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Both of these serve as bookends to America's dilemma in the world today. The personal carnage and loss of limbs at one end and the grand scheme to use war to bring peace to the world, to Afghanistan, to Iraq. What is the sacrifice our young men and women soldiers pay in the abstract name of 'freedom', especially in countries that have never known it?

Those "thousands of troops' needed to defeat the enemy consist of young guys and gals like Joshua Bouchard of western MA, many armed in the Khyber hills and many laid up in beds with ghastly life changing wounds. What is the price of freedom and how do we use it when we have it. Should we charge forward with ideology banners waving and troops across the world that destroy thousands of lives in the wake? Are we destructively tangled in being the police force of this world? Hello Vietnam....

The great irrational fear that we targeted at Vietnam and the 50,000 dead soldiers lost in the 'must win' war are now all gone. Look at Vietnam today. Communism did not take over southeast Asia and Vietnam is becoming a capitalistic country. Bad governance has to change for the better in order to survive well, like China, Russia, South Africa--or alse take a country down in ruins a la North Korea, Sudan, Zimbabwe. or Burma. The USA cannot save everyone and our young troops cannot be wasted.

The following comments are taken from newspaper reports about Josh:
Sgt. Joshua Bouchard was serving his second enlistment and his seventh overseas assignment when he was seriously wounded in an explosion in Afghanistan. An apparent improvised explosive device detonated while he led a convoy in a southern province. The attack came as the U.S. pressed a new strategy to take land in southern Afghanistan from the Taliban and hold it. The mission in Helmand Province involving Marines with Bouchard's brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., is a key part of President Obama's plan, outlined in March, to take on al-Qaida terrorists there and in Pakistan with a bigger force.

Joshua is the son of James Bouchard of Darrel Avenue in Granby, MA and Mary Hafford of Harwinton, Ct. For the family, Joshua's injury reopens wounds carried over from one generation to the next. The sergeant's father, James Bouchard, was shot in the chest on a combat mission near Da Nang, in Vietnam, in 1969. He moved to the Pioneer Valley (western Massachusetts) in the early 1990s so he could receive care for post-traumatic stress disorder at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in nearby Leeds.

"This is just so tragic," James Bouchard said Friday. "I didn't think it would happen to him."

Joshua Bouchard lost most of his left leg as well as suffered spinal injuries so severe he is not yet a candidate for a prosthesis, his father said. The Marine also fractured his right arm. Initially, it was thought the blast was from an improvised explosive device, but it is now believed it may have come from an anti-tank rocket, his father said.

Josh was a mechanic with the Marines' 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was drafted into service as gunner because his unit was shorthanded, according to his father.

As a gunner he was in the open part of the vehicle. "He was open to the blast," his father said.

The 26-year-old sergeant had already served two tours of duty in Iraq. He was traveling in the Humvee with four of his buddies, two of whom were killed and two of whom were also injured and are in the same trauma unit with Bouchard.

On the day young Bouchard was hurt a top Marine commander said more forces will be needed to push the Taliban from the province. Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson told the Associated Press enemy forces will try to return to harvest a lucrative poppy crop he called "the engine that drives the Taliban."

Bouchard and his crew have been awarded Purple Heart medals from the commandant of the Marine Corps during a ceremony conducted at their bedsides at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

"His spirits are right up there. He is fighting this all the way," the elder Bouchard said by telephone from the hospital on Thursday. But it will be some time before Joshua will be able to return home. Currently he is being treated for further medical problems--a broken coccyx bone at the base of his spine-- at the veterans' hospital in Richmond, VA.

Bouchard is a 2002 graduate of Amherst Regional High School, Amherst, MA. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2004 and recently signed up for another four years of service. Joshua's family members have been at his side starting with when he was med-evacuated to Germany.

Also see: Community helps support wounded Marine
Read story here.

Olympic Committee Should Monitor Host Countries on Human Rights

Human Rights Watch
New York
October 7, 2009

Olympic Congress Should Adopt a Plan to Oversee Human Rights Environment for the Olympic Games

The Copenhagen Olympic Congress should create a permanent mechanism to monitor human rights in host countries before, during and after Olympic Games.
Human Rights Watch, which has submitted a proposal to the Congress
(http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hsJNK3ORIiLPJeJ&s=fjKSJ5MOKoK3LeNNLpF&m=ifLPK2MGIeIRG),
is particularly concerned about potential abuses in Russia, host for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. The world watched as China trampled on human rights -- including throwing people in jail -- in the name of preparing for the Beijing Games. That should never happen again, and the Olympic Congress should act now to make sure it doesn't.

Read more, (http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=klLTLcM3LlKWLoI&s=fjKSJ5MOKoK3LeNNLpF&m=ifLPK2MGIeIRG)
Take Action >> (http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=deJFIRNBJeJJJ4K&s=fjKSJ5MOKoK3LeNNLpF&m=ifLPK2MGIeIRG)

Gays, Ship Cruises and Homophobia in the Caribbean

Westhampton, MA - October 7, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

Slipping into port and out of mind:
Gays, Ship Cruises and Homophobia in the Caribbean

Four friends of mine, all hard-working professionals, recently completed a cruise on one of the many mega-ships that sail among the hundred islands in the Caribbean Sea, many of which are little countries with their own languages, laws and currency. Others are protectorates or territories of larger European countries and are subject to their laws.

Daily, these big ships bring in thousands of customers to small ports of call to visit the beaches, souvenir stalls, restaurants, dive shops, taxi stands and even real estate offices where a certain few fall in love with a place and find their dream home and never leave. Most, of course, ferry back out to their floating hotels after a day’s activities tired and hungry.

Needless to say, among the crowds are a portion of gay and lesbian tourists, singles and couples, who mingle with the non-gay crowds during mealtimes or participating in ship events in the gym, cinema or stage shows.

My friends, two gay male couples, report they had a nice time, relaxing from stressful jobs at home. They visited 8 different islands and 8 different cultures, swam in azure waters and wandered the lanes of small towns window shopping or taking a donkey-cart tour of a town. It’s the usual thing tourists do on these trips, gliding along the surface of these small countries interacting slightly with native inhabitants.

After their return home one couple got together with my partner and me, also a gay couple, to share their vacation stories and some dinner one evening. During the conversation about the ship’s size, handsome staff (well, a few anyway), the menus, entertainment, crystal-clear beaches and charming villages they visited, I asked if they noticed any other gay folks on the ship. One of them said, “oh, I suppose there were some but we don’t pay much attention to that,” and then went on to another topic.

This comment has stuck in my mind since because of the apparent lack of interest in other gay and lesbian passengers who are fortunate enough to afford a luxury cruise and courageous enough to travel publicly as a couple—gay couples are noticeable. Yet they were reacted to by my friends with seeming indifference almost verging on disparagement of like-minded others. The comment was all the more surprising since my friends are active in gay rights and HIV charity work which serves others who are less privileged or less well.

Have these friends—prosperous, fashionable, socially connected--become so care-less to the achievements of our own community that they don’t need to recognize the privilege they have and to recognize similar achievement in others. My friends, and likely other gay passengers, have clearly done well in one generation by hard work and resistance against conservative forces that would have us quarantined. We need to recognize one another for our earned achievements and privileges and not act indifferently toward them.

And we need to recognize that such privileges are not so for most of our world LGBT community.

Part of my reaction here, is sourced in my awareness that for many homosexuals in the Caribbean the good life is hardly within reach.

Before these two couples left on their cruise I asked to see their itinerary. The list of ports included San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Dominica, St Kitts, Barbados, St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, St. Maarten, Tortola, Half Moon Cay (Bahamas), and Virgin Gorda.

A little research found the following conditions govern homosexuality in the Caribbean:

Legal status: Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Guadeloupe, St Martin, Tortola, Virgin Gorda

Illegal status: St Kitts & Nevis, Barbados, Granada, Dominica, St Lucia, Jamaica, St Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago

Legal but not accepted: Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas

Wholly unaware were my friends to the fact that in four (St Kitts & Nevis, Barbados, Dominica, and Lucia) of the eleven places they breezed through they were technically criminals: homosexuality is illegal in these small island nations whose legislatures have passed statutes that make outcasts of same-sex-loving people in their societies. In the case of Half Moon Cay, as part of the Bahamas, homosexuality is not illegal but it is not accepted and homophobic attitudes run deep.

The Christian missionaries got to the Caribbean before gay folks did--by a couple of centuries--and in their biased wisdom persuaded social and political leaders to determine queers were illegal creatures—at the same time they approved the import of tormented African slaves whose trade made many white Christians rich.

The present day insult cuts deep and visceral for me. In 2005 a Jamaican gay activist friend of mine was murdered in Kingston. A year later another gay activist doing HIV education outreach was murdered in the same city. A year after that a young man who was merely suspected of being be gay was chased by a gang and cornered at the Kingston harbor where he jumped into the water to escape a beating and drowned as the gang cheered.

After two weeks my friends sailed safely home, tanned, a few pounds heavier and then back to work, with the Caribbean an unruffled pleasant memory. Meanwhile many of our Caribbean LGBT community members continue to be harassed and vilified with more violence to come.

I’m not suggesting my friends not take deserved vacations. But it would have been a gesture of integrity if they had informed Holland-American Cruise company that they are unwittingly supporting homophobic discriminatory governments in certain Caribbean destinations by landing on their shores. If more LGBT travelers recommended the ship company bring economic pressure to bear on these little nations by threatening to stop sailing to their ports, Holland-American could make a fine contribution to human rights and increase their respectability among the gay community worldwide.


For more about homophobia in the Caribbean see this report.
Gay cruise lines: Atlantis; RSVP; Olivia; other Gay and Lesbian Cruises