Mississippi Gay Group Boycotts City of Gulfport
The Advocate,
August 8, 2003
Shortly after the city council in Gulfport, Miss., passed a resolution
condemning the U.S. Supreme Court for striking down sodomy laws, the state’s
gay rights group announced a boycott against the city. Now the “Not One
Dime!” campaign, launched by Equality Mississippi, is going after the cruise
ship industry to encourage it to not make use of Gulfport docking facilities.
“The cruise lines are well known for hosting numerous gay cruises, and we
definitely know them to be gay- and lesbian-friendly,” said Jody Renaldo,
Equality Mississippi’s executive director. “We are going to make sure that
the cruise lines are well aware that the city in which they are looking at
bringing their ships and business...discriminates against its gay and lesbian
passengers. Councilman Billy Hewes said of our annual equal rights conference
that he didn’t want 800 to 1,200 queers in Gulfport. I wonder if he could
imagine a cruise ship full of queers coming into Gulfport. Until the city
makes amends on this resolution they passed or until Billy Hewes is no longer
associated with the city of Gulfport, they won’t have to worry about queers
coming to Gulfport, and they won’t have to worry about counting our gay
dollars.”
Equality Mississippi has opened a special section on its Web site dedicated
to the boycott, including contact information for the major cruise lines so
that people can contact the cruise lines themselves to encourage them to dock
elsewhere. Carnival Cruise Line’s newest and largest cruise ship, the
Conquest, made use of Gulfport Harbor for several weeks because of low-hanging
power lines that prevented it from getting to its home port in New Orleans.
Sources say the ship could make Gulfport its permanent location. Princess
Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Holland America Line, and Carnival
Corp. all visited the Mississippi Gulf Coast last year for a daylong tour of
the port, tourist attractions, and casinos. Since the tour the lines have
continued to talk to a Mississippi Gulf Coast cruise ship task force. Port
officials hope to convince cruise ship executives to dock their ships in
Gulfport.
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