Sandals Resorts, Love is All You Need

Since 2001, the Jamaican-based Sandals resort vacation chain which operates 19 resorts in the Caribbean included a ban on same-sex couples, that explicitly stated that it was for "heterosexual" people only and that only "couples over 18 " are welcome..

In October 2004, the company released a statement saying it has decided to remove the word from all its advertising. Sandals specified that the change was necessary to make it compliant with European Union laws. It was also threatened with a human rights complaint in Canada.

Britain is reportedly the second-largest source after the United States of Sandals' clientele.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone banned Sandals advertisements from underground trains and wanted to do the same on London's taxi cabs, because of what he saw as Sandals' "'homophobic" attitude. Gay action group OutRage! also pushed the issue in the UK and complaints about Sandals policy led Barclaycard, one of Britain's largest credit card companies, to drop the firm from its promotions in 2002.

Horace Peterkin, general manager of Sandals Montego Bay, the chain's flagship property, told The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, "The United Kingdom and Europe are getting paranoid about the matter of discrimination and they are looking under every bush for it which is ridiculous."

"We do not anticipate that homosexual couples will come to the resort in light of the change," he continued, adding that "We have other properties that are more open to a wider niche. Right now our staff has not even respond to the change because we are confident that it will not affect how we operate. Everything about us has to do with a man and a woman."