It’s their life, not yours

I have too many times heard of the gay community referred to as an abomination.

I have spent time in classrooms arguing my point that gay people are just the same as straight and that you shouldn’t judge anyone before getting to k now them.

I have been told to keep quiet when simply stating that such stupid names as Chi Chi and Batty Man are not part of the English language and therefore need not be spoken.

I am not the only one who sees no harm in these people coming to our island.

What could possibly happen?

It’s not like they are going to have a gay pride parade in the middle of town complete with balloons and rioters protesting.

In fact, Caymanians were the ones protesting. We are making too much of a big deal out of this.

I tell people every day that you shouldn’t take offence or be angered by their arrival. The only time you should have a problem is if one of them tries to advance on you, then you can tell them to buzz off. Other than that, you have no basis for argument.

It’s their life, not yours.

You have no power over the way these people choose to live their lives, nor can you judge them.

I’m not much of a Bible reader, but didn’t it say somewhere in there that ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone’?

It’s nobodies place to decide whether or not this ship is allowed to enter Cayman waters and unload its passengers. No one has the right to control anyone’s life.

I’m not sure what the problem is. I really don’t understand why there has to be a problem anyway. It’s simple; if you wish not to see the gay cruisers stay home.

I think this island needs fewer churches, hypocrites and homophobic people and more understanding.

Ultimately, we will never see these people again, so what are we worried about?

In the end, it’s between them and God. Their life has nothing to do with you, nor do they discriminate against you.

In short, I think this whole blow up over the cruise landing was childish.

Why fight over something like this? Isn’t Cayman supposed to be a tourist attraction?

Why are we turning away tourists? And if the answer is something along the lines of ‘I don’t agree with their lifestyle’ then lest look at it this way: Why don’t we just give everyone on a cruise to the Cayman Islands a survey to fill out containing all the things we don’t agree with.

And then we can tell those who said ‘yes’ to what we don’t agree with to stay on board. That’s fair, isn’t it?

Then we would have about two per cent of all our visiting tourists actually visiting. Cool huh?

Then the Cayman Islands can go bankrupt due to unnecessary discrimination.

When our islands go bankrupt because there are close minded people living here, I’ll be moving to a gay village in the States and living my life in a community that does not discriminate.

Kathryn Jayne