gay sex law.

The group has plans to direct local and international media attention to the issue within the next two weeks, a spokesman for the group said yesterday.

"We will be doing something on the local scene ... probably by the end of next week,'' said the 32-year-old man, who spoke to The Royal Gazette on condition of anonymity. "It's not a demonstration, but it will be something that will definitely stir up interest.

"It will bring things to light locally.'' The man said the group was organised by about eight local professionals, who fear they will suffer job and Police discrimination if they step forward publicly.

"Until such time as we have some sort of protection, we will remain anonymous,'' he said.

The group is in touch with about 600 gay and human rights organisations around the world, and has organised a letter-writing campaign to fight the law, under which men who have consensual sex in private can go to prison for 10 years.

Letters will be sent to Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan and copied to United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Mr. Douglas Hurd, the man said.

Activists have called on the United Kingdom Government to act if the Bermuda Government does not, and bring the Island's law into compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Information about Bermuda's law will be spread through Action Alert, the newsletter of the San Fransisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

Internationally, the campaign will be "equal to or more severe than what they're doing to Colorado,'' the man said.

There, Denver has lost an estimated $15 million in convention business since voters approved an anti-gay amendment.

"Knowing a few of the things that I know, I don't think the law stands much of a chance of staying on the books very long at all, especially when we get our international attention to this,'' he said.

In the face of growing international pressure, Government has said it has no intention of amending the criminal code. Community and Cultural Affairs Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons has challenged a backbencher or Opposition member to introduce the motion, but nobody has taken him up on it.

Mr. Russ Gage, programme director at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in San Francisco, said a gay boycott of Bermuda is effectively under way, though it has not formally been called.

"We've already exposed the situation throughout the world,'' Mr. Gage said yesterday. "It's not very likely that gay and lesbian people would plan their vacations there, knowing what they do about the country's law.'' Mr. Gage, who is in contact with the underground group in Bermuda, said he did not believe the group planned to "out'' a prominent Bermudian. "Outing'' is a controversial tactic of exposing those who are secretly gay.