The act of travel is inherently political. Whether it’s the strength of your passport, the country you travel to, or how you decide to spend your money upon arrival, each decision has ramifications beyond a suntan and an Instagram memory.
But for LGBT travelers, the politics of where to vacation can be far more fraught. Such is the case with Bermuda, where the tourism industry is facing a pivotal moment after the right to same-sex marriage was recently repealed—just nine months after a law was passed allowing it.
The #boycottBermuda backlash was swift: Carnival Cruise Lines, which began offering same-sex wedding packages aboard its Bermuda-bound ships last year, supported a lawsuit challenging the reversal. And celebrity talk-show host and LGBT-advocate, Ellen Degeneres, urged her viewers to boycott Bermuda, saying she had personally canceled a trip there. Rainbow Alliance of Bermuda, a local LGBT organization, called the new legislation a “watered down version of rights.”