Bermuda’s gay community last night questioned the awarding of a lucrative tourism contract to a man who vociferously opposed Rosie O’Donnell’s doomed gay and lesbian cruise earlier this year.

They said it was ironic that Andre Curtis — whose comments have been described as landing Bermuda a global reputation as a homophobic island — was now contracted to receive $400,000 of taxpayers’ money to set up ten faith-based tourism events in a year.

The Rosie O’Donnell trip was cancelled in April after United By Faith chairman Mr. Curtis, who opposed it, warned: “We may just choose to pick them (the passengers) up by bus and bus them to our church, to different denominations, and have the pastors pray for them.” Campaigners say the comment — and Mr. Curtis’ subsequent claim that the cancellation was a “victory for God” — could lose Bermuda thousands of potential tourists among human rights supporters as well as gays.

Mr. Curtis runs Premier Ewart Brown’s constituency in Warwick South Central, but Dr. Brown denies allegations that he set up faith-based tourism to get cash to him as a thank you gesture.

However, neither Mr. Curtis, Dr. Brown nor the Department of Tourism have been able to point to any faith-based tourism events which have taken place or are in the pipeline for 2007-08, other than a women’s conference next February.

Last night, Alex Cabrall, 27, from Warwick, a member of Bermuda’s gay community, said: “It’s ironic that someone’s been chosen to bring one set of tourists to the Island when they outwardly spoke against another set of tourists that wanted to come to the Island.

“The fact Rosie O’Donnell got so much publicity when it was cancelled meant people could see we still have discrimination based on sexual orientation in Bermuda. It’s not only gay tourists who are going to be affected by what happened. There are also a lot of affluent people who believe in equal rights who may not support a certain segment of the population being discriminated against.

“You get a lot of straight families who are outraged at the fact Bermuda publicly spoke against gay people.”

Rosie O’Donnell’s company, R. Family Vacations, cancelled the July visit to Bermuda out of concern the Norwegian Cruise Line ship would be met by protests from the Island’s churches.

It feared a repeat of an incident in Nassau, the Bahamas, in 2004, when children on board were upset at dockside anti-gay chants by religious groups.

The cancellation quickly became the hot topic on gay websites around the world, with many labelling it an example of homophobia in the 21st century, and Pinknews.co.uk, Europe’s biggest gay news website, declaring Bermuda a homophobic island.

Last week, The Royal Gazette published details of a draft contract explaining how Mr. Curtis’ company Harvest Investment Holdings was being paid $400,000 to set up ten multi-faith events between April 1 this year and March 31, 2008.

However, the only faith-based project mentioned on bermudatourism.com, the website on which they are supposed to be listed, is a women’s conference featuring speakers from Oklahoma from February 14 to 18, 2008.

Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert, a professed Christian, has repeatedly called for Dr. Brown or Mr. Curtis to come clean over how the money is being spent and to give details of the ten events he is supposed to have organised.

Last night, former Tourism Minister Renée Webb, now a Government backbencher, said: “Normally there are certain things that have to take place before you are paid. Payment is based on the number of bookings that are made and the number of people that come to Bermuda. I would hope that is the case here.”

Mr. Curtis, whom the contract states is prevented from speaking to politicians or the press without written permission from the Department of Tourism, has repeatedly refused to answer questions on the subject. Dr. Brown denies the scheme is a thank you gesture but has refused to speak further until the next Parliamentary session begins in November.