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 Kiss Lands Mass. Gay Couple In Trouble With
Police
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: May 5, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(George Town, Grand Cayman) A gay couple from
Massachusetts was detained by police after kissing on the dance floor of a
popular club on Grand Cayman.
Aaron Chandler, 23, and his boyfriend, both from
on Amherst, Massachusetts, were holidaying with the boyfriend's sister and brother–in–law
on the Caribbean island.
The four had gone to the Royal Palms and joined
about a dozen other couples who were dancing.
At one point Chandler kissed his boyfriend. A
patron approached the men and berated them.
"He asked us not to do that," Chandler
told the Cay Compass newspaper. "He said, 'you
shouldn’t be doing this here'.
The couple ignored the protest and kept
dancing. Chandler, who is a member of the National Youth Advocacy
Coalition, then planted another kiss on his boyfriend.
"I do display affection when I’m with my boyfriend, publicly,"
Chandler told the paper. "It’s never anything most people would consider obscene however;
usually it’s in the form of holding hands or a quick kiss."
An off-duty police officer intervened after the
second kiss.
"He told me he did not want me to show public displays of affection,"
Chandler said. "He said it was against the law for two people of the same
sex."
As the four Americans were preparing to leave the
club Chandler kissed his boyfriend again.
At that point "The officer grabbed my wrist and told me he was placing me under
arrest," Chandler told the Compass.
A second police officer arrived at the scene and
the two men were taken to the George Town police station.
After several hours in a holding room they were
released without any charges laid.
Chandler said that police attempted to get them
to promise not to kiss again in public while on the island.
Whether they could have been charged is
questionable.
Following complaints in several British
territories in the Caribbean the UK Parliament passed a law in 2000 requiring
the islands to abide by British law that decriminalized homosexuality.
But a police spokesperson told the Compass that
two Cayman laws - the Penal Code and the Towns and Communities Law - could have
been used to lay changes on the grounds that same-sex kissing in public caused distress or
a disturbance to another member of the public.
Chandler, meanwhile, has filed official
complaints with the Cayman
Department of Tourism and with police.
©365Gay.com 2008
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