Tips for Gay and Lbian Travelers Bahamas | Frommer's

Many Bahamians have an irratnal fear and hatered of homosexuals. It is not unmon this untry to enunter people havg nversatns advotg for vlence agast homosexuals. Such hostily is unfortunate. Homosexualy is a normal phenomenon human societi. A certa small populatn of every human muny is gay. Some display homosexual clatns as children, suggtg they were born gay, and others e to this place later life. Homosexualy is not new and is not rare. We therefore should all be reasonable enough and accept that homosexuals are people entled to the same protectn unr the law as heterosexuals when to discrimatn. Certaly, no sensible person should assert that a person should be fired, beaten or molted for beg gay. The Uned Natns Human Rights Council rolutn affirmg equal rights for gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr GLBT people, passed earlier this month, is a posive progrsive step. The rolutn, which narrowly passed the uncil 23 to 19 wh three abstentns, exprsed grave ncern about discrimatn agast gays throughout the world and affirmed that eedom to choose sexualy is a human right. Surprisgly, when asked about the issue, both the Free Natnal Movement FNM and the Progrsive Liberal Party PLP supported the rolutn. Deputy Prime Mister and Mister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symote said the ernment supports the expansn of rights for people of any persuasn. Opposn lear Perry Christie said the rolutn is humane and therefore his party is favor of . I thk om our pot of view we unrstand the sensivy of this matter, said Christie, addg that the PLP has always been mted to progrsive polici -- polici that emphasize our mment to human rights. The parti monstrated matury by takg the public stands they did. It is not popular to support homosexuals any way The Bahamas. However, at tim public officials mt lead bat of nscience and not merely follow ignorant popular views. The Christian church The Bahamas has been vol s opposn to the more welg attus towards homosexualy that are beg monstrated veloped wtern societi recent years. The church, as is s right, has affirmed that homosexualy is a s. The Bahamas Christian Council BCC, s release after the UN rolutn, said supports the protectn of everyone om all forms of discrimatn. However, warned that The Bahamas ernment's support of the UN rolutn uld open the door to all rights afford heterosexuals to be offered to GLBT people, cludg marriage. We the Christian church firmly believe that marriage is between a man and a woman -- perd. As imperfect as that might be at tim, is between a man and woman -- full stop, said the BCC. For now the issu are separate. The step the Bahamian polil parti have taken by embracg the rolutn is simply to state that they support the right of homosexuals to live their liv ee of discrimatn based on their sexual orientatn. This should mean that the parti will not support laws or practic that discrimate agast gays. As the Bahamian mocracy evolv, however, the parti will be nonted wh more difficult issu. The law mocraci ually evolv through cizens challengg discrimatory practic via the urt. The urt, which is entsted wh the rponsibily of protectg mory rights, has to terme if statu vlate the broad prcipl of liberty enshred mocratic nstutns. Courts around the world have forced the hands of legislatur when to gay rights. Some have argued that laws clarg that marriage is between one man and one woman discrimate agast homosexuals. Hence, the old way is led unnstutnal and gay marriage is allowed. Homosexuals unrstand that their fight for equaly, as was for blacks, has to be won one step at a time. As the homosexual lobby be more anized The Bahamas and unrstands that the urt n help s e, The Bahamas may be forced to accept gay marriage, gay adoptn and further normalizatn of homosexualy. On Thursday past, the Marathon Bahamas Board officially lnched the program that will culmate the third annual long distance sports/tourism extravaganza on the weekend of January 14-15, 2012. Plans ternatnally and natnally are unfoldg que well for what is swiftly beg the marquee sports/social event of the year The Bahamas. More so than any other factor however, the announcement by Board Chairman Franklyn Wilson that there will be a foc this time around on ensurg that the pace will be faster than the two prev years, is huge. Ined, the objective is for the fishg time for the wner of the 2012 Sunshe Insurance Marathon Bahamas event to be well unr three hours. This cisn will no doubt elevate Marathon Bahamas on the petive sle. We feel that we've achieved a lot wh this race jt two short years. Now, we want to get the kd of nners who will guarantee faster tim and give our race a different perspective, said Wilson. This is a step that will go a long way toward puttg the annual event the mastream of the send level marathons n around the world. It is unrstood that Wilson and pany need a few more years yet to beg thkg terms of beg parable to the major marathons like those of Boston, New York, London, Berl, Chigo, Honolulu, etc. The world rerd 2:03:59 was set 2008 by Ethpian Haile Gebrselassie, at the Berl Marathon. He lowered his prev mark 2:04:26, set 2007, also Berl. Gebrselassie beme world marathon kg by unseatg Kenya's Pl Tergat who ran 2:04:55 2003, Berl. Before Tergat, Khalid Khannouchi of Moroc was the standard by which marathon nners were measured. Reprentg his native Moroc, he ran 2:05:42 1999 at the Chigo Marathon. He brought the rerd down to 2:05:38 at the 2002 London Marathon, petg as an Amerin cizen. Pla Radcliffe of the Uned Kgdom owns the women's rerd of 2:15:25, acplished 2003, at the London Marathon. Wilson is not thkg about those aforementned fishg tim... not jt yet. However, the time is right for Marathon Bahamas to move beyond the novelty stage. The ial Marathon Bahamas was won by Bahamian Delroy Boothe 2:59:31. His natnal mark is 2:34:49. Earlier this year, Sunshe Marathon Bahamas II, German Simone Maissenbacher was the fastt fisher. Her time was 3:02:39. It ma Wilson and his group take notice. They seek to take the event to another tegory, more like the marathons Jacksonville, Florida or Tn, Arizona. Human societi are fickle - norms are always changg. Who knows what will be acceptable The Bahamas a century om now. A century ago the thought of blacks and wh beg equal and then 'ter-marryg' was offensive to many. Now, terracial marriage is a non-issue. The wner of the 2010 Jacksonville Marathon was Jt Gillette. He clocked 2:29:17, followed by David McCollam 2:31:13. At the Tn Marathon, Eric Laghl was the wner 2:32:21. BJarne Fergaard was send 2:41:35. It is that area, Wilson wants Marathon Bahamas to go. The ternatnal marketg mpaign has started earnt and already sr of nners, clive of petors om Europe and North Ameri, have registered. Marathon Bahamas is on the move! The 2012 race weekend should be que the sports/tourism bonanza. To rpond to this lumn, kdly ntact Fred Sturp at A century om now maybe Mr. Smh marryg Mr. Smh on a beach on one of our islands too may be normal.