1ST BAHAMAS PRIDE CANCELLED OVER DEATH THREATS

The first gay pride event to be held in the Bahamas has been cancelled after the organiser received death threats.

The Bahamas Pride Freedom Weekend was intended to take place this past Friday to Monday to bring together “members of the queer community, their friends, allies, and supporters in celebration of our unique spirit and culture.”

The weekend was to include various parties, a boat cruise, HIV testing and drag pageants at a Freeport, Grand Bahama private resort.

The event, however, was cancelled on the first day after organiser Victor Rollins received death threats on his Facebook page, reported The Nassau Guardian.

The threats, said Rollins, came after he posted pictures of attendees holding rainbow and Bahamian flags on the beach. The event also faced opposition from local media after he issued a press release promoting the weekend.

The result, he said, was that not a single member of the Bahamian LGBT community showed up; the 11 attendees who did take part were all foreigners.

“Everyone is scared,” Rollins told the newspaper, “but that’s normal for this type of thing.”

The police said they had been prepared to monitor the event for any trouble.

Dr. Myles Munroe, President of The Bahamas Faith Ministries International (BFMI), said in press release that the planed gay pride event was a “celebration of insanity,” reported The Bahama Journal.

“Is it civil, right, reasonable, logical, sane to promote a cause, lifestyle or practice of a behaviour that could in its ultimate conclusion cause the extinction of the human race? It is insanity to demand the ‘celebration’ of your own extinction?” he asked

“They are free to prefer any unnatural sexual orientation they desire or crave, but they must, cannot and should not require that we the majority dignify it by promoting or glorifying it as normal or accepting it as natural,” Munroe added.

Rollins planned to report the threats to the authorities.

While homosexuality is legal in the Bahamas, it is widely frowned up by most of the country’s socially conservative Christian citizens.