relations. Indeed that was the very reason that the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge was given the post. He was and is good at public relations and excellent at glad handing. Indeed, many travel agents who had become friends of Mr.

Woolridge were upset when he was dropped briefly from the Cabinet over the "two little white boys'' affair.

The Minister of Tourism is not required to have the technical abilities of a Minister of Works and Engineering, the financial expertise of a Minister of Finance or the management capabilities of a Minister of Management Services.

The tourism job is the most public one in Cabinet except the Premiership and succeeds because the minister who holds the job is able to represent Bermuda to the travel industry and the traveller in the best possible light.

That changed this week when the Minister, Mr. Woolridge, moved to alienate travel agents and potential travellers. Mr. Woolridge must have made a mistake and thought that his anti-gay remarks would only drive away gay visitors. That is not true. An openly anti-gay country drives away those people who believe in human rights and personal dignity. There can be no better example than the State of Colorado which, right now, is suffering because a wide range of people, led by the famous, are staying away because of gay discrimination.

Mr. Woolridge may not care that he has offended travel agents who deal in gay travel, which would be bad enough, he has made a major blunder and offended the many gay travel agents who deal in all travellers. The travel industry, like many service industries, is heavily staffed by people who are good at their job, boost Bermuda and just happen to be gay. What happens when they get together at the next travel industry convention and bad mouth Bermuda? All these people need to do is comment to clients, and the vast majority of Bermuda's clients come here on the recommendation of travel agents, that there are problems in Bermuda and they would be happier in Barbados or the Bahamas or Barbuda. Bermuda is seriously hurt.

Mr. Woolridge has been Minister of Tourism for many years, off and on, and we know that he has done extraordinary work in pushing and promoting Bermuda. He knows how tourism works. He meets the agents. He knows the realities of tourism and the fickle nature of visitors. Mr. Woolridge knows better than anyone how hard it is to sell Bermuda these days in the face of growing competition and cheaper rates in other resorts. He is apparently unconcerned about a loss of potential visitors at a time when Bermuda's tourism is struggling.

Bermuda is struggling to recover from the recession. Latest figures show that despite the temperature guarantee tourism figures are not good. This issue could continue the decline in Bermuda's tourism well beyond the cash crisis.

We can find no explanation for Mr. Woolridge upsetting travel agents of any description and putting barriers in the way of potential visitors.

Bermuda was already receiving bad publicity abroad over the gay law issue.

That is bad enough and it is going to grow. Mr. Woolridge has succeeded in making things worse. Bermuda already has a reputation in the travel industry of upsetting people's vacations with things like unnecessary strikes. Now the word will go about among agents that Government's own Tourism Minister does not support human rights.

Mr. Woolridge's personal feelings are his right and his business but this time his feelings are in conflict with what is productive for his ministry. Perhaps he sees this anti-gay law as a sex issue when, in fact, it is a human rights issue and a legal issue in the sense that it contravenes international conventions by which Bermuda is bound and may well contravene Bermuda's own constitution.

The truth is that if one person is discriminated against, we are all shamed.

There can be no human rights and no dignity for the many if there is no care for the few.