Let Them Eat Gays

When two gay tourists are arrested and charged with sodomy (or more quaintly, "buggery"), you'd expect the LGBT community to get up in arms about it. What you wouldn't expect is for the owner of the gay cruise operator the couple was traveling with to come out in defense of the virulently homophobic island nation where the couple was arrested and against his own customers. Yet that, apparently, is exactly what Atlantis Events president Rich Campbell is doing.

From the Huffington Post:

President Rich Campbell, who is aboard the cruise, said in a phone interview earlier that he thought the two men would be released. He later said in an email that the company has organized many trips to Dominica and would "happily return."

"Many countries and municipalities that gay men visit and live in have antiquated laws on their books," he said. "These statutes don't pose a concern to us in planning a tourist visit."

…

"The guests actions were unfortunate but minor in this case and have no bearing on our overall guest experience," he said via email.

The arrest of two men for a crime that can be summed up as "being gay" is definitely "unfortunate,” but Rich shouldn’t be laying the blame at the feet of his own guests. To say that he'll return to Dominica in the future immediately after this arrest (and prior to knowing whether the men will face any prison time, as the charges can carry up to six months in prison) makes him sound like a latter-day, water-logged Marie Antoinette.

Yes, there are rumors circulating in the comments sections of the cattier blogs: Were the men in their room, or on the balcony? If they were inside, were the shades open or closed? None of this matters. Why? Because they weren't charged with indecent exposure or lewd conduct or any of the other charges that could have been applied equally to straight or gay couples engaged in public sexual conduct. They were charged with “buggery,” an offense which is only a crime when it is two men having sex.

Rich’s response, which waves away a sodomy charge with a flick of the rhetorical wrist, not only trivializes the charge against his two customers, but also the real suffering of millions of LGBT people who still live under sodomy laws, in Dominica and around the world. I would have thought a man who has made a fortune off of gay men and gay dollars would be more sensitive to these issues.