FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two members of a gay travel group who said they were assaulted aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship said officials from the cruise line failed to take proper precautions to ensure their safety.

Steve Garrod, 27, of Seattle and J. Gardner, a 34-year-old lesbian from California, said they were attacked by two straight couples while aboard Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas cruise ship for a three-day Halloween cruise Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 with the gay travel group Outcruising.com. Garrod said he suffered bruises, lacerations and a broken facial bone, while Gardner said she sustained damage to her eyesight from being kicked in the face and the eye.

According to Garrod, he and several other members of the travel group were in one of the ship’s bar following a masquerade party, when two straight couples began harassing group members, calling them “fucking faggots.” He said he asked the bartenders to call security officers, who arrived several minutes later.

In that time, Garrod said, he was pushed to the ground by two women who kicked him in the face and head. Their male partners then began assaulting Garrod as well, he said.

“I just thought to protect my head and hoped that it would stop,” Garrod said.

The two straight couples ended their attack after security arrived and escorted them out of the bar to question them. At that time, Gardner said, she went outside to see if security needed any statements from the group. In the presence of the ship’s security staff, Gardner said, she was hit in the face and pushed to the ground by one of the women, and that one of the men then kicked her in the face and eye.

Garrod and Gardner charged that the ship’s crew failed to keep them safe and never detained or confronted the assailants.

Michael Sheehan, a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean International, declined to comment on the situation, citing an “ongoing investigation,” but a company statement sent via e-mail said, “We take very seriously any behavior on board our ships that breaches the rights and safety of any guest or any crew members.”

The statement said the company was cooperating with officials, including the FBI, to investigate the assault.

Pattern of ignoring assaults?
Following published reports about the assault, a third man came forward to say he had also been the victim of an anti-gay assault aboard a Royal Caribbean ship in June 2002, and that the company also failed to detain his assailant in that case as well.

Craig Combs, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said he was aboard Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas on June 4, 2002, when he was assaulted by another passenger. According to Combs, he and a friend were in one of the ship’s bars when another passenger approached them in a hostile manner. When Combs tried to brush the man off, Combs said he replied, “What are you going to do now, sissy?”

The man then grabbed him by the neck and pushed him against a wall while calling him several anti-gay epithets, Combs said. There were no security guards in sight, and the man eventually let go of Combs after several seconds. When Combs ran to a bartender to report the assault, he said the bartender at first ignored him altogether, and then told him to call security himself.

Combs said the security officers who responded to his call caught up with his assailant, but only questioned him briefly and did not detain him. He said he filed a report with the purser’s desk, but nothing was ever done. He said his assailant never faced any consequences for his assault and was allowed to enjoy the rest of the cruise.

Sheehan, the cruise line’s spokesman, said he was not aware of the Combs incident, but that he would look into it.

Combs, meanwhile, said he won’t make the same mistake again.

“Honestly, I don’t see myself ever going on a Royal Caribbean again,” Combs said. “And if somebody told me they were going on Royal Caribbean, I would tell them to rethink it, unless there is going to be a large group of gays on board.”

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