Criminal
04-08-2003, 10:44 PM
http://www.q.co.za/2001/2001/03/graphics/12-cape.jpg
Cape Town - The new Sodom?
The growth of gay tourism in Cape Town, South Africa's top tourist destination, has sparked a religious backlash with accusations that the city risks becoming the new Sodom.
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Jeremy Lovell - Reuters
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The row, conducted mostly through correspondence in local newspapers, has bemused the city's gay community who say they harm no one and actually bring in a lot of money and generate much-needed jobs.
"We see homosexuality as a sinful lifestyle. It is an offence to Christians to see the city promoted in this way," Errol Naidoo, spokesman for the His People Christian Church, told Reuters.
Naidoo, who began the debate with a letter describing gays as "vile", claims to be voicing the concerns of more than 130,000 Christian Capetonians.
"Cape Town is being positioned on the world stage as some sort of gay paradise. We are against it. The bible says the lifestyle of the homosexual is a violation of God's plan. It says homosexuals will not enter the kingdom of heaven," he said.
The Muslim Judicial Council, one of the biggest groups representing the city's 600,000 Muslims, voiced its support for Naidoo in the increasingly acrimonious clamour.
Gay and business leaders are bewildered.
"This debate is ridiculous," Mike Thomson, who heads the local business chamber, told Reuters. "The U.S experience tells us gay tourism is big bucks, and tourism is fundamentally vital to our future in this part of the world."
Michiel Spaapen, owner of the Amsterdam gay-only guest house and on the board of GALACTTIC -- the Gay and Lesbian Association of Cape Town Tourism Industry and Commerce -- was equally dismissive.
"The growth of gay tourism in Cape Town is unstoppable. I wish this debate would all go away and just let us get on with our lives," he said.
Thriving gay community
There are varied estimates as to the size of the gay community in Cape Town and the number of gay tourists who visit South Africa's Mother City each year.
Spaapen, a Dutchman who came to Cape Town three years ago from San Francisco -- the world's gay capital -- said he believed there were about 100,000 gays living in the city although most would be in monogamous relationships.
Julian Brandon, who runs the Atlantic tourist information office catering primarily for gay visitors, said that in 1999, 24,000 gay foreigners passed through the city -- a number he said had since grown sharply.
"Gay travel is very, very big business. Gay travellers spend 40 percent more than straights. They have no kids, do not have to set aside money for college education and are usually professional people with good incomes," he said.
"Gays feel comfortable in Cape Town. Our fantastic constitution protects us and we have had enormous positive response from all the business community, who recognise the gay rand, gay pound, gay dollar are all worth having," he added. The most recent edition of the Spartacus guide to gay travel destinations rates Cape Town as fifth in the world.
"Everybody back home in Amsterdam is talking about Cape Town. It is cheap, beautiful and very friendly -- especially for gays," said Chris van Oordt, staying in Spaapen's guest house on holiday from the Dutch winter.
The unremittingly hedonistic city has developed the Waterkant gay village -- a cluster of bars, restaurants, steam baths, massage parlours and clubs close to the Waterfront tourist area which has a thriving night life.
Brandon said the bombing of two gay bars in the Waterkant in the past 18 months was just as likely to have been a protection racket as the work of the Muslim vigilante group PAGAD held responsible by the police.
Spaapen said he knew bar and club owners in the city were paying thousands of rand (dollars) a week to gangs for protection.
Bid to host gay olympics
The city also boasts a gay nudist beach at Sandy Bay, and it is well known that the beautiful boys of Cape Town hang out at the famous Clifton third beach on the Atlantic seaboard.
There are three exclusively gay and 12 gay-friendly guest houses -- shown in a thesis by University of Cape Town student Elli Yiannakaris to be the most popular places to stay among gay visitors to the city.
Brandon even runs a gay car hire company, although he admits he doesn't think it gets any better business than if it did not have the gay tag attached to it.
Sheryl Ozinsky, head of Cape Town tourism and a strong activist of niche marketing for the city, said it would be a sin to ignore the opportunities of the gay travel market.
"We would be silly not to target the pink market. Sydney's Mardi Gras gay festival generates the equivalent of 630 million rand ($81.71 million) for the city each year," she said.
Ozinsky, whose own sexual preferences have been dragged into the debate by Naidoo, said the city's annual and privately run Mother City Queer Project party generated at least 20 million rand as thousands of gay and heterosexual people flocked in.
Party organiser Andre Vorster put the figure at closer to 50 million rand, although some local gay businessmen disputed it. "Whatever the truth, there is no doubt the gay travel market is expanding," Ozinsky said, adding that she hoped the city would get the chance to host the 2010 gay olympic games.
Naidoo lashed out at the proposal for the city to host the gay games, and in a letter to the Cape Argus newspaper African Christian Democratic Party MP Cheryllyn Dudley said promoting homosexuality was akin to condemning people to hell.
"Acceptance and promotion of homosexual behaviour is not loving homosexuals, it is callously aiding them in their destruction," she wrote.
Spaapen sees it fundamentally differently.
"Gay-friendly cities attract thousands of straight visitors because it is known that gay people only go to nice cities," he said. "Far from saving the city by stopping gay tourism, Naidoo would be hurting it. But he will not stop it at all."
Cape Town - The new Sodom?
The growth of gay tourism in Cape Town, South Africa's top tourist destination, has sparked a religious backlash with accusations that the city risks becoming the new Sodom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeremy Lovell - Reuters
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
T
The row, conducted mostly through correspondence in local newspapers, has bemused the city's gay community who say they harm no one and actually bring in a lot of money and generate much-needed jobs.
"We see homosexuality as a sinful lifestyle. It is an offence to Christians to see the city promoted in this way," Errol Naidoo, spokesman for the His People Christian Church, told Reuters.
Naidoo, who began the debate with a letter describing gays as "vile", claims to be voicing the concerns of more than 130,000 Christian Capetonians.
"Cape Town is being positioned on the world stage as some sort of gay paradise. We are against it. The bible says the lifestyle of the homosexual is a violation of God's plan. It says homosexuals will not enter the kingdom of heaven," he said.
The Muslim Judicial Council, one of the biggest groups representing the city's 600,000 Muslims, voiced its support for Naidoo in the increasingly acrimonious clamour.
Gay and business leaders are bewildered.
"This debate is ridiculous," Mike Thomson, who heads the local business chamber, told Reuters. "The U.S experience tells us gay tourism is big bucks, and tourism is fundamentally vital to our future in this part of the world."
Michiel Spaapen, owner of the Amsterdam gay-only guest house and on the board of GALACTTIC -- the Gay and Lesbian Association of Cape Town Tourism Industry and Commerce -- was equally dismissive.
"The growth of gay tourism in Cape Town is unstoppable. I wish this debate would all go away and just let us get on with our lives," he said.
Thriving gay community
There are varied estimates as to the size of the gay community in Cape Town and the number of gay tourists who visit South Africa's Mother City each year.
Spaapen, a Dutchman who came to Cape Town three years ago from San Francisco -- the world's gay capital -- said he believed there were about 100,000 gays living in the city although most would be in monogamous relationships.
Julian Brandon, who runs the Atlantic tourist information office catering primarily for gay visitors, said that in 1999, 24,000 gay foreigners passed through the city -- a number he said had since grown sharply.
"Gay travel is very, very big business. Gay travellers spend 40 percent more than straights. They have no kids, do not have to set aside money for college education and are usually professional people with good incomes," he said.
"Gays feel comfortable in Cape Town. Our fantastic constitution protects us and we have had enormous positive response from all the business community, who recognise the gay rand, gay pound, gay dollar are all worth having," he added. The most recent edition of the Spartacus guide to gay travel destinations rates Cape Town as fifth in the world.
"Everybody back home in Amsterdam is talking about Cape Town. It is cheap, beautiful and very friendly -- especially for gays," said Chris van Oordt, staying in Spaapen's guest house on holiday from the Dutch winter.
The unremittingly hedonistic city has developed the Waterkant gay village -- a cluster of bars, restaurants, steam baths, massage parlours and clubs close to the Waterfront tourist area which has a thriving night life.
Brandon said the bombing of two gay bars in the Waterkant in the past 18 months was just as likely to have been a protection racket as the work of the Muslim vigilante group PAGAD held responsible by the police.
Spaapen said he knew bar and club owners in the city were paying thousands of rand (dollars) a week to gangs for protection.
Bid to host gay olympics
The city also boasts a gay nudist beach at Sandy Bay, and it is well known that the beautiful boys of Cape Town hang out at the famous Clifton third beach on the Atlantic seaboard.
There are three exclusively gay and 12 gay-friendly guest houses -- shown in a thesis by University of Cape Town student Elli Yiannakaris to be the most popular places to stay among gay visitors to the city.
Brandon even runs a gay car hire company, although he admits he doesn't think it gets any better business than if it did not have the gay tag attached to it.
Sheryl Ozinsky, head of Cape Town tourism and a strong activist of niche marketing for the city, said it would be a sin to ignore the opportunities of the gay travel market.
"We would be silly not to target the pink market. Sydney's Mardi Gras gay festival generates the equivalent of 630 million rand ($81.71 million) for the city each year," she said.
Ozinsky, whose own sexual preferences have been dragged into the debate by Naidoo, said the city's annual and privately run Mother City Queer Project party generated at least 20 million rand as thousands of gay and heterosexual people flocked in.
Party organiser Andre Vorster put the figure at closer to 50 million rand, although some local gay businessmen disputed it. "Whatever the truth, there is no doubt the gay travel market is expanding," Ozinsky said, adding that she hoped the city would get the chance to host the 2010 gay olympic games.
Naidoo lashed out at the proposal for the city to host the gay games, and in a letter to the Cape Argus newspaper African Christian Democratic Party MP Cheryllyn Dudley said promoting homosexuality was akin to condemning people to hell.
"Acceptance and promotion of homosexual behaviour is not loving homosexuals, it is callously aiding them in their destruction," she wrote.
Spaapen sees it fundamentally differently.
"Gay-friendly cities attract thousands of straight visitors because it is known that gay people only go to nice cities," he said. "Far from saving the city by stopping gay tourism, Naidoo would be hurting it. But he will not stop it at all."