I accept that we're hearing this story second-hand at best, but this bothers me. We're being hypocrites to say that we cannot be discriminated against, but we can discriminate at will. It must be a two-way street of true equality. Any discrimination for the sake of retribution (affirmative action) only causes deeper discrimination and damage.

I'm sorry if some of you have felt (or feel) discriminated against. Paying it back doesn't make it right, and it won't improve things. Last year I was with a group of friends and one was celebrating her 30th birthday. We went to a gay bar called Norma Jean's and she dressed up to look like Marilyn Monroe. We were a mixed group of gay and straight, men and women. At one point, a gay guy in the bar started swearing at one of the girls in our group calling her a fat ***** and pushing her around. In the end he told the girls they had no business being there. He was extremely hurtful and my friend ended up in tears (she didn't yell back). Consequently, that was the last time any of them wanted to go to a gay bar! These were really cool, very open, pro-gay people, who got slammed just for wanting to party with us! That's a great way to change peoples' views of homosexuals... I was very shocked by this. I never imagined that people of a minority group who know what it feels like to be discriminated against would in turn make anyone else feel that way. It must stop! With behaviour like this, we are breeding hatred.

And this situation in Key West reminds me of that story...and saddens me. That's not the kind of interaction I want to have with straight people who were, according to the story, booked together with a gay couple. It appears these were gay-friendly people. Even if they weren't, with that kind of treatment they never will be!

And, I've seen it asserted several times in this forum that Sandals discriminates against gay couples. Does anyone know this for a fact or is this just the rumour? I know a gay couple who just stayed there for a week in Jamaica with another straight couple who got married. The best man was gay and he and his partner stayed there with the group...no problem. Therefore, this statement that Sandals is discriminatory is surprising.