:Just about everyone lost in the Rosie O'Donnell cruise controversy by the time it finally ended last week.

It was entirely predictable that the cruise would draw opposition from churches and other anti-homosexual groups from the minute it was announced. The opposition came, the cruise organisers hit back, and then decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

One can only imagine that the organisers must have known that they would be sailing into controversy. If they did not, then they cannot have followed events in Bermuda very closely, especially the dismal failure of the Webb bill just months earlier.

Still, one wonders whether anyone in the Ministry of Tourism warned them that the cruise would be opposed. It defies logic that the Ministry did not know it was coming since the organisers had chartered the whole ship - which in turn had forced some previously booked passengers off as well.

Of course, Ms O'Donnell has a well known penchant for publicity, and it is not impossible that the cruise was planned in an effort to raise the issue of gay rights.

If so, it succeeded admirably, but the cost was the eventual cancellation of the cruise.

The Government has not come out of this episode especially well. Although the organisers singled out Premier and Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown for his support, the fact is that the opposition to the cruise was organised by his former campaign manager, who also organised the United in Faith rally where Dr. Brown was so conspicuous just before the Progressive Labour Party leadership vote in 2005.

And Andre Curtis is a former Brown-appointed Tourism Board chairman who is still supposed to be driving Dr. Brown's Faith in Tourism initiative.

Suffice to say, Dr. Brown had a hard balancing act if he was to keep the church vote he has been so assiduously courting while still showing the more progressive world outside of Bermuda that he is not a homophobic bigot.

He seems to have managed that individually, but the cost to Bermuda's reputation is harder to quantify, although it is undoubtedly negative.

The churches that opposed the cruise can be said to have won, but again, at what cost? People who believe that homosexuality is an insult to their faith are entitled to their beliefs and are of course entitled to express them, but the recent protests have shown a lack of tolerance that violates the central tenets of Christianity and of western democratic practice.

In the end, the cruise has been cancelled and Bermuda's name has been damaged. Its hard-earned reputation for welcoming visitors of any persuasion has been sullied, while its equally hard-earned name for tolerance has been hurt too.

Nothing good will come out of this.