Miami Cruise Ship Carrying Gay, Nude Passengers Barred from St. Kitts
South
Florida Sun-Sentinel, March 23, 2005
By Frank Griffiths, Associated Press
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO—Authorities
in Nevis barred a gay and nudist cruise organized by a Miami company from
entering the tiny Caribbean island Wednesday, saying it was offensive to local
customs.
A police patrol boat stopped a Windjammer Barefoot
Cruises ship carrying 110 passengers on a six-day cruise as it was approaching
Charlestown, Nevis, the ship’s captain Cornelius Plantefaber said.
Plantefaber said three officers boarded the ship and
demanded he accompany them to a meeting onshore. The meeting lasted about an
hour and port authority, police, customs and immigration officials were
present, he said. Port authority officials confirmed that a meeting took place
and the cruise ship was barred from entering.
“We do not want to allow people on the island who from
what I’ve heard could be naked and carry a certain lifestyle and
practices,” said Oral Brandy, acting general manager of the Nevis port
authority. “We don’t want it to be a part of our culture ... It’s not a
practice society likes here.”
Sodomy is illegal in St. Kitts and Nevis, as it is in
several other Caribbean nations, and it can lead to a jail term, government
spokesman Erasmus Williams said.
But Williams said gay cruises have been to the former
British colony in the past and there have been no problems. The country has a
federal government and the capital is in St. Kitts, but the smaller island of
Nevis is semiautonomous and has jurisdiction over local affairs including
entry to its ports.
“We welcome all visitors,” Williams said, speaking
for the federal government. “We’ve had gay ships in St. Kitts in the past
and the visits have gone off without problems. I’m surprised that Nevis
officials didn’t let them in.”
Plantefaber said that the cruise would leave Nevis and
head for St. Barthelemy. “I’m disgusted,” he told The Associated Press
in a telephone interview from the ship. “I’ve been sailing for 24 years
and have captained gay cruises before and I’ve never encountered anything
like this.”
The cruise began its journey in St. Maarten on Sunday and
later visited Anguilla before heading to Nevis, said Sharon Kersten, a
publicist for Miami-based event production company Source Events, which
organized the cruise. There were no problems in St. Maarten or Anguilla, she
said.
“The passengers can be nude while the ship is at sea
but once they come to shore they obviously have to be clothed,” Kersten
said.
She denied Brandy’s claim that Nevis officials had
intelligence that the passengers would be nude when disembarking from the
ship. “It’s absolutely not true,” Kersten said. “Every one of the
passengers has been told to be totally respectful.”
The ship, named S.V. Polynesia, is a 248-foot schooner
and most of the passengers aboard are Americans, she said. The cruise ends
Saturday in St. Maarten, a Dutch Caribbean territory. Windjammer Barefoot
Cruises is based in Miami Beach, Fla.
St. Kitts and Nevis has a population of about 40,000.
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