Jamaica will not recognize same-sex marriage

[ECO]

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the country's parliament would not recognize same-sex marriage while he was in power.

He acknowledged to parliament that his stance could prompt the "aggressive" international gay-rights lobby to continue attempts to discourage tourists and investors from traveling to Jamaica.

"But we remain steadfast in our determination that the values and culture must be protected and preserved," Golding said. More at source http://www.valuesvoternews.com/2009/10/ ... l-not.html

I guess Golding has a country to run With the current economy and lack of tourists, it's a perfect time to upset the gay tourist crowd.....just my 2 cents.

[Rose21]

I don't like that man one bit. The only time he has something to say is when it consern gays...he doesn't speek out against crime and curruption, or the other problems pacing Jamaica as a whole.

Jamaica depend on the tourist dollar, and the gays has a lot to spend. They have a long way to go in JA, he don't want gays in the cabinet so gay marrige wont be any time soon. If they clean up their act and allowed gays in the hotel, then gay marrige, they would bennifit from the profit.
Lol...can you imagine the amount of beach front weddings.

[LadySizzla]

i just dunno where the stupidity originated from. why is jamaiaca more than any other 'christian' country so anti gay?

[Batty_gyal]

Ok my two bits...I'm in the middle. Obviously as a girl from a Christian background..I can identify with the belief against Gay's, however I also have some great close gay friends that I support. Its kinda agree to disagree.

However not everyone can have a strong belief against something and still be as open minded as I am.

Say the prime minister supported Gay's...and gay people had the money to spend and visitied. You really think that would solve a damn thing??

You think the local population would suddenly become pro gay because the prime minister ok'd it? It would take long years of violence and probably alot of deaths before the thinking pattern started to change. I can't see that helping tourism any either.......

[ECO]

Ashley I don't anything is going to happen overnight but baby steps in the right direction are a better step than his latest action. Research how gays were treated in the US just 10 or 20 years ago and how they are treated now. Along the same lines, look how women were treated.........heck while I'm at it, look at how black people were treated 10-20-30-40 years ago.......baby steps add up.

It has never been a question of if the gays have the money to visit Jamaica, they have more disposable income than any other group of people. Any smart business will target them..........Jamaica is in the tourism business but I guess they are doing so well they can turn away potential clients. You have an excellent point about if it will solve anything, I don't have an answer. If the Pm kissed some @ss and impressed lets say 5,000 gay couples to spend 7 nights in Jamaica I doubt those 35,000 room nights will repair all the potholes on the island and end poverty. Taking a wild guess those 35,000 room nights times $200 a night (food, tours, taxes....) would bring $7,000,000USD into Jamaica but with the AI's filtered it back out of the country it's anyone's guess how much of the money will stay there.

On another note I can respect the PM for not selling out his country's culture just for some income that would help his country.

In reference to the local population becoming pro gay it doesn't matter at all. All they have to do is learn to smile and say "welcome to Jamaica enjoy your stay".

The other half of me is thinking "way to go PM, keeping those gays out of Jamaica will make my stay so much cheaper".

[Batty_gyal]

See like I said before..I agree to disagree. I think we all have the freewill to be who we want to be, and nobody has any right to tell us differently. We all answer for ourselves in this life, and after death, whatever a person believes happens. So do your own thing. You don't have to agree with others choices, or support it but it needs to be respected.

But I just worry what the consequences would be if pro Gay was promoted in Jamaica, and if Gay couples especially, started to filter in on vacations. See I know Gay people were treated badly in the US to at one point, but the US also wasn't dependant on promoting a positive image to keep a steady flow of tourism, something the island is in alot of ways financially dependant on.

I don't know about others area's, but I've gathered often the general consensus is, many people think Jamaica is dangerous and will pick other islands to go to for a vacation. I've been asked MANY times by people at my work and people I know about safety issues when traveling to Jamaica.

I don't particularly know what would happen if Jamaica was broadcasted as suddenly " Gay friendly". I don't see the local population reacting positivley and normally tourists are fairly safe from any of the violence and crime in Jamaica. But alot of Jamaicans feel VERY strongly about Gaza and Gully, and there have been numourous reports of violent incidents involving tourists over that..like the Canadian couple who played a movado song in the wrong area on their car stereo and got beat down.

Now Jamaicans don't feel nearly as strong on Gaza and Gully as they do homosexuality. So I could easily see violence occuring against Gay tourists. Right now the world is in a recession, I think Jamaica needs to keep a positive image. I don't think making it Gay friendly would affect tourism in a way that really makes a difference financially. I also think the baby steps it would take to overcome this issues would be SLOW...and long time coming. You have the entire older generation who are firmly rooted in their anti Gay beliefs, and you have the middle generation who are also, and the young have been raised the same way. To change this way of thinking would take a long long time...it would probably put Jamaica in a negative spotlight to the world and do heaps of damage to tourism.

I'm not suggesting that Jamaica should never broach the issue, but I think it would need to be done slowly...and maybe when the world is out of the recession more and tourism isn't already on a low!! Who knows..I could be way off base. Just my opinion!!

[ECO]

I was trying to find the site that list all of the gay friendly hotels in Jamaica and thought this was the link http://www.seejamaicacheaply.com/gay_tr ... maica.html but it directs me to this resource http://www.gayscape.com/gayscape/welcome.html and they don't/no longer list Jamaica. Oh well, I guess gay travel to Jamaica will still happen but it will be kept more underground.

[Batty_gyal]

You know...it would be nice if Jamaica was more friendly towards people of all walks of life!!! I do admit that!!

I never knew there was gayfriendly places in Jamaica, although I did know there was a large underground gay scene amoungst locals. You can find the videos on youtube!