“Tracking This Impact Is Far More Difficult”
[Updated + Written by Don Burgess]
A new round of attention is being drawn to the #BoycottBermuda hashtag across social media after Governor John Rankin signed the Domestic Partnership Act.
Critics called it a step backwards as Bermuda became the first country to repeal same-sex marriage after a court last year ruled that gay couples had the right to marriage in Bermuda.
A tweet sent using the #BoycottBermuda hashtag
The #BoycottBermuda hashtag first surfaced at the end of last year when Parliament passed the Domestic Partnership Act.
At that time, former US presidential candidate Howard Dean urged people to spend their vacation money elsewhere, and on social media, a few people said they were cancelling their reservations.
A spokesperson for the Hamilton Princess said they are not revealing any specifics, telling Bernews, “While we cannot divulge specifics of guest bookings, Hamilton Princess & Beach Club welcomes all guests and does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. We support any policy that would provide a positive aspect for our guests and for Bermuda tourism.”
In December, the Bermuda Tourism Authority asked hotels and guest properties to contact them to let them know how many reservations had been affected by the Act.
Kevin Dallas, CEO of the BTA, told Bernews before the Governor signed the law, “The focus of the Bermuda Tourism Authority remains to promote Bermuda as an inclusive and welcoming destination for all visitors.
“The Bermuda Tourism Authority is working with Government and other stakeholders to track cancellations where the visitor gives the Domestic Partnership Act as the reason for deciding not to come. However, it’s far too early to assess the impact of a new law that hasn’t fully been through the legislative process yet.”
Mr Dallas said while those numbers will have some impact on Bermuda, there is a more significant worry.
“More importantly, cancellations are not the measurement of most concern. Potential visitors who have seen unfavourable media coverage about Bermuda, and decide not to come here, as a result, is a larger concern. Tracking this impact is far more difficult, especially because the affected audience stretches far beyond the LGBT community.”
Update 7.33pm: The BTA just posted a link on their social media to a ‘FAQ’ page on their website; a screenshot of the page is below.
Congratulations idiots in government another nail in our coffin.
Whats laughable is Bermuda gives gay couples more rights then the Caribbean, so are they gonna boycott the Caribbean too?
SMH
Idiot Juice: You keep proving how dense you are. For the last time: people are pi$$ed that Bermuda GAVE the right to marriage then TOOK away the right to marriage. That’s the rub. Has nothing to do with places that don’t have, never had and never will have SSM.
If I could draw you a picture I would. Try understanding it this way:
‘Slavery is now abolished!!’ “Yayy!! Great! Awesome!”
‘Nope, we take that back… slavery is back on.’ “Booooo! Horrible! No way!”
‘ Women now have the right to vote!’ “Yippee! Sweet! ‘Bout time!”
‘ Err, umm, nah, we take that back, women cannot vote.’ “Oh no you didn’t!” “Whaaat?”
Does that help you to understand? If not, I give up.
Govt of the sheep lead by the sheep. A global embarrassment.
Bermuda got the government they voted for, there fore the government they deserve. Now Bermuda will have to live with the negative actions these incompetents make. Too bad really but then you should have thought about that in July 2017. You made your bed.
You must not live in Bermuda if you did you would know neither GOVERNMENT did anything for the gay community. SO GET REAL!!!
Yes, get real! The former government may not have done anything, but the current one has done a negative thing.
Out of the 195 countries that are in the world only 24 of them allow for same-sex marriages. The majority of Caribbean countries do not allow for same-sex marriages either. Where are the #boycotttheworld and #boycottthecaribbean campaigns? #Hypocrisy
What is funny is seeing all of the #boycotbermuda comments, telling people to visit other islands, saying there are other beautiful islands in the Caribbean.
Bermuda under the Domestic Partnership act has given same-sex relationships some protections under the law. These other islands and hundreds of countries around the world have ZERO 0 protections under the law for same-sex couples, but yet they will travel there. LOL. Please!
So true. But ignorance is bliss right? It’s only the fact that Bermuda is all over the media at the moment that everyone knows where we stand on human rights – they have no idea about the Caribbean do they?
The ‘other countries’ didn’t give it then take it away.
If I recall correctly, we never legislated same-sex marriage. Same-Sex marriage was granted by a single judge based on that judge’s interpretation of the law. Which could be wrong and could be challenged in higher courts.
So we, legislatively, never granted same-sex marriage, so we cannot take away something that we never granted through legislation.
Saying Bermuda (government) took it away, when Bermuda (government) never gave it, is dishonest.
Exactly!! This is why I can’t this serious.
#becauseweGRANTEDfullEQUALITYofrightsandthenRENEGED
The people of bermuda took a vote we decided we don’t want samesex marriage and that’s that! The power is in the people and politics we address. #whendidnormalbecomeaoutkast
The referendum was ruled invalid since it lacked necessary numbers. And you don’t speak for all of Bermuda…only the ones who are focused on promoting discrimination.
Fake news
Everyone that would have voted Yes in the ‘invalid’ referendum, did.
Had the referendum been binding, the majority of the island would vote No.
If people were Honest, they would see the Act provides more than is given by other countries
Proud to be Bermudian
*Everyone that would have voted Yes in the ‘invalid’ referendum, did.*
And exactly how do you come to this fallacious conclusion ?
What if everyone who did vote ‘no’ in this(invalid) referendum were all the ‘nos’ in the entire island ?
BERMUDA will not be bullied. Point Blank!
Exactly!
No its just gay people you bully.
Big mistake Bermuda.
EXACTLY, well said. On our island we’re the ones who have and continue to be the bully. Picking on minorities, be it by sexuality, gender or place or origin, We treat the constitution like the bible, pick out the parts we want to follow and ignore the rest, unless it’s in our personal interest.
I was just being sarcastic by the way.
You have no problem bullying other people though
This regime has no mandate on this issue. And the churches have no place in it. In the referendum ONLY 14,192 voters bothered to turn up and object. Out of a registered voting population of 44,367. The rest either turned up to vote “yes” or had no objection so did not turn up. (The whole idea of voting on a human right was considered repugnant so people stayed away!) These bigots have forgotten that human rights apply to all. Homophobia is the new racism. Evolve already.
Those are the figures that matter.
NO! A lot of people did not bother to vote (No voters) because the referendum was meaningless, an exercise in futility by the former government when they said the referendum would be non-binding. No decision was going to be made based on the referendum. Waisted money spent! Based on the margin of No to Yes votes it is safe to say that if more of the electorate voted, the margin would have been much higher with more people voting no.
Why is same-sex marriage a human right? The highest courts have said marriage especially same-sex marriage is NOT a human right.
Were gonna be Famous and eat Romain lettuce and Burt burt………….
Well done Bermuda Government, proud of you for coming up with a compromise to give all of your citizens a little bit of what they wanted and a little bit of what they did not want. That was the best you could do in light of a large portion of your community saying NO, and a smaller portion of the community saying YES, Don’t worry about those who say Bermuda will suffer serious harm in tourism , QUITE the opposite will be the end effect. As a country, mark my words you will be blessed because of this decision by your Government. And that is one of the main reasons why OBA is not the Government today. Again well done.
Jesus hung out with twelve dudes you hyprocritical bigot.
being Proud for discriminating guess its like i’m seeing the confederate flag flying , 3rd world countries do this sort of stuff because they don’t know better . The difference between Bda and the Carribean is they didn’t repeal the right to allow for SSM
You may be Proud but I am totally ashamed
Sad time to be a Bermudian
“This too shall pass”
Not sure that PLP strategy is going to play out on this disaster!!!
Yawn…
But …its still bigotry our own homemade brew of it!!
No compromise. A right was granted and then taken away.
I bet if the issue was something different the howls that we would hear would be deafening.
Sad and myopic.
Bermuda is showing the world nothing more than how hateful we can be. POINT BLANK!!
1 Judge can not decide for the rest of Bermuda, I am Sorry
No spin needed
A PR disaster. Thanks PLP. More jobs lost.
That’s correct. Food being taken out of our mouths.
I wonder when one Bermudian “reporter” will share with the world the whole truth about the issue of same sex marriage in Bermuda. Bermuda did not “repeal” any act because there was no change in the law.
The problem only exists in the minds and mouths of few. The reality is that you cannot force a whole nation to bow down to the abnormal practices of a small minority. This is against democracy, and is more akin to socialism. We live in a democratic nation where the majority rules. There are very few nations on earth who have accepted same-sex marriage, and this is for a very good reason. The people who are complaining about this are making a big scene, but there are not many people complaining in the wide scope of things. The vast majority of planet earth is against same-sex marriage, and the reality is that those complaining just want to make as much noise as possible for attention. People do not plan vacations around “does this country support same-sex marriage?”. People plan vacations based on other more important things. How many people travel to Dubai or other such nations which are even more strict against such things as same-sex marriage? Dubai is a huge tourism spot. The scenery and history attracts people, not little laws on paper. Respect your laws and nation and democracy. Respect the majority. We do not want nor support same-sex marriage.
Ignorance produces fear. Fear produces hate. We are bigger and better than this Bermuda. #loveforall
Just having the ultra Conservative, Trump like PLP in power is a guarantee of less high spending tourists. We might actually get MORE CONSERVATIVE BIBLE BEATERS from the US Red States, but once they meet our “friendly Nationalistic” locals, they won’t come back again!
“. We might actually get MORE CONSERVATIVE BIBLE BEATERS from the US Red States,”
…’cause they love people of colour!
I was surprised that there were hundreds , if not thousands of gay couples visiting the Vatican City …. No boycott there !
I wonder why ?