send clients to Bermuda, their international association's president said yesterday.

Mr. Steve Jackson said Bermuda's gay sex laws were discussed on Friday at a directors' meeting of the International Gay Travel Association in Key West, Florida.

There was no need to take any action against Bermuda, because gay travel agents have known about the Island's law for some time, Mr. Jackson said.

"We do not encourage travel to any destination where there is discrimination towards gays and lesbians,'' Mr. Jackson said. "We are not going to have our clients travel to destinations where they're going to be discriminated against, feel uncomfortable, or possibly be the victims of gay-bashers.

"Bermuda is not any kind of a special case, any more than Jamaica is, or the Bahamas, or any number of other places where the old conservative British influence is still prevalent,'' he said.

Mr. Jackson said the 600-member association, whose members sold more than $1 billion in airplane tickets last year, gets more interested in a country "when there is a change towards acceptance''.

"The situation in countries like Bermuda is not new,'' he said. "It's when something happens in a positive vein that it's news.'' The Bermuda Criminal Code provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years for buggery. It provides for up to two years in prison for acts of "gross indecency'' between males.