John Hart and Dennis Mayer in their police mug shots A Californian man has spoken out about the 'horrendous' ordeal he and his partner suffered when they when they were arrested and jailed after being escorted off a gay cruise in the Caribbean. Palm Springs man Dennis Jay Mayer, 53, says he and his partner of 17 years John Robert Hart were taunted, humiliated and subjected to inhumane treatment in Dominica. He has no doubt they were arrested because they were gay and denies they were having sex on the balcony of their ship cabin, as police claim. "The total experience was horrendous," he has told AP. "They told us that they did not like us, that they did not like gay people." Mayer says he and Hart were left on a bench for nearly two hours while their requests for a lawyer were denied, then suffered a four hour examination before being place in a cell. "The treatment was inhumane," Mayer said. "We were detained for approximately 26 hours, and 19 of those locked in a cement cell, which had no running water, no toilet, no lights. It stunk of faeces and urine. It was infested with cockroaches, ants and bugs." Mayer says police brought in government officials to look at them. "They paraded many people by to look in on us as if we were some type of animal, which was quite humiliating," he said. "People got great joy in the pleasure of taunting us." The men were ordered to pay a nearly $900 fine after they pleaded guilty to indecent exposure. Dominica is among several Caribbean islands that have laws prohibiting sex between men.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 24th March 2012 - 6:20pm