Goa Prefers Religious Based Bigotry to Gay Tourist Dollars

The Indian State of Goa - historically a Portuguese enclave where the Roman Catholic Church is entrenched - has apparently capitulated to the efforts of the Catholic Church and will not include gay tourism as part of international travel event that is currently underway. Apparently kissing the generally corpulent asses of the enablers and protectors of child rapists is more important than economic growth and religious tolerance. Never mind that the LGBT travel market is estimated to approach If a region wants to promote bigotry and discrimination, I guess it's the locale's prerogative. However, I believe that such bigotry needs to be exposed and one can only hope that LGBT tourists and progressive businesses will avoid the region like the plague. Instead of dishing gays, the government in Goa might better serve its citizens by investigating the Catholic Church and the sexual abuse of children and youths. Based on the pattern seen over and over again around the world, it would be highly unlikely that similar instances of child rape and molestation are not happening in Goa even as I type this post. The Christian Today has a piece lauding the religious bigotry in Goa. Here are some highlights:

The Goa state government has consented to hold back the promotion of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) tourism in a major international travel event that is currently underway.

After protests from the Church and other religious groups, the state government on Thursday said discussions on LGBT tourism won’t be part of the Goa International Travel Mart organised by the Department of Tourism from Oct. 21 - 23. State Tourism Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar told reporters that the session on LGBT was dropped keeping in mind the sentiments of the people.

Fr Francisco Caldeira, spokesman of the Goa Catholic Church, said that the state government "should not orient itself towards this kind of tourism". Caldeira opined that people cannot be stopped from coming to Goa for holidaying. "But the campaigns should not be inclined towards inviting them specially," Caldeira said.

Gay Tourism is said to be a multi-million dollar industry worldwide with $ 2 trillion turnover expected by 2012. The Catholic Church earlier expressed that the manner in which tourism was being promoted in Goa, it had virtually swamped and overshadowed the ethos of Goa.

Frankly, I hope a sex abuse scandal in Goa breaks in the near term. By licking the boots of the Catholic Church, the Goa government is making a statement that lies, cover ups and the sexual abuse of minors are reflective of the ethos of Goa.