After watching Bermuda develop a reputation as a homophobic Island over the Rosie O’Donnell gay cruise row, one group of friends did their bit to redress the balance. Teenager Freya Lawrence and her pals dragged themselves out of bed early on Sunday morning, armed themselves with brightly coloured placards and staged an “anti-protest protest” against what they describe as ignorant bigots in Bermuda.

They stood at Dockyard to welcome passengers aboard the Explorer of the Seas — a gay cruise organised in spite of the cancellation of the Rosie O’Donnell trip amid much-publicised opposition from church groups in April.

According to Freya’s mother, gays and lesbians at first assumed the teenager’s group were showing their disgust at the trip. But on seeing their banners with messages such as “Come and stay, we don’t care if you’re gay” and “We are not all ignorant bigots”, the demonstration received a hearty response.

Freya, 16, a Bermuda High School student, said: “We saw what people were saying about the Rosie O’Donnell gay cruise, and we didn’t want people to think all of Bermuda thought like that.

“It’s a big issue and it’s about human rights. We don’t always take rights too seriously in Bermuda. People might think we’re homophobic in Bermuda and that’s really bad for tourism.”

The protest, which took place for about two hours from 8 a.m., featured Freya, her friends, Carrol Wilson, 15, Natasha Kneeland, 15, and Mrs. Lawrence. Mrs. Lawrence, from Pembroke, said she had heard a man in a shop talking about the Rosie O’Donnell cruise.

“There was all this hatred and venom pouring out of him. I remember feeling sorry for him,” said Mrs. Lawrence.

“I thought why waste your life and energy hating a group of people who have never done anything to you and never will do? Instead of all this protesting, why don’t we welcome this cruise.

“I talked about it with my daughter, then forgot about it. But she brought it back up again before the cruise came and we decided to do it.”

On the reaction from passengers, Mrs. Lawrence said: “There were a few mysterious looks at first and I think they thought we were protesting against them. But once they saw why we were there they thought it was great.”

Mrs. Lawrence sent photographs of the demonstration to gay website PinkNews.co.uk, which has previously been inundated with comments criticising Bermuda over the Rosie O’Donnell cruise.

A message on the website states: “God bless you madam!”