Recently, retired police officer Dennis Jay Mayer, 53, and his partner, John Robert Hart, 41 both of Palm Springs, Calif., were on board an Atlantis Event cruise traveling through the Caribbean. Trouble began shortly after the cruise ship the Celebrity Summit docked Wednesday (3/21/12) morning at Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. Mayer and Hart were in their room when they got a call from a cruise ship official.
"We were summoned that the captain wished to speak to us," Mayer said. "We were caught off guard."
Three cruise ship officials and six Dominica police officers were waiting for them. After police interviewed both men separately, the assistant captain spoke, Mayer said.
"At this time, we are going to eject you from the ship. We have zero tolerance toward your behavior," Mayer recalled him saying.
Police drove them to their headquarters, where they sat on a bench for nearly two hours without legal representation despite repeated requests, Mayer said.
After police took pictures and obtained fingerprints, a high-ranking officer began a nearly four-hour interrogation.
"He said: 'You're being arrested for being gay. We're arresting you for the crime of buggery,'" Mayer said. "He said that other people said that we were engaging in homosexual sex. He repeated that several times. I told him I didn't know why they would say that. I wasn't doing that.
On the Caribbean island of Dominica (as well as several other Caribbean islands) there are laws prohibiting sex between men.

Atlantis Events is the world's largest producer of gay and lesbian cruises and resort vacations, hosting over 25000 guests from around the world on unique vacation getaways.

Recently the President of Atlantis Events, Rich Campbell told the Associated Press that the company would continue to visit Dominica in the future. Rich Campbell continued to say “Many countries and municipalities that gay men visit and live in have antiquated laws on their books. These statues don’t pose a concern to us in planning a tourist visit”.

My mission is to call on Atlantis Events and have them obtain a higher stand of social responsibility then the one they currently carry. Specifically I want Atlantis Events to commit to no longer traveling to any countries or destinations that have laws in place that condemn gay men and woman for their sexuality. I believe that it is completely morally irresponsible for a company who caters to an all gay clientele to take them to countries that could prosecute or detain them for their sexuality thus putting them in harm’s way. I also believe it is wrong to support and fund these countries economy that have these anti-gay laws in place, so I believe traveling there not only for the sake of the safety of the passengers aboard but also for the social responsibility Atlantis Events should represent.

I will not book a cruise or any travel with Atlantis Events until they release an official statement declaring they will no longer travel to destinations or countries that have laws in place condemning gay men and woman.