A private dance in public spaces

By Michael Kearns

In the aftermath of Sen. Larry Craig’s headline-grabbing incident, no man — gay, straight or otherwise — will ever drop his drawers and lower himself onto a toilet seat in a public restroom without some sense of uneasiness.

As a teenager in the late ’60s, when I was learning the ins and outs of gay public sex at St. Louis’ Forest Park, little did I realize that my hometown would be the nexus of Laud Humphreys’ landmark 1970 Ph.D dissertation, “Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places.” In fact, Humphreys gathered his research in the very park that hosted the first World’s Fair and provided the backdrop for the film, Meet Me In St. Louis. The lyrics, sung by Judy Garland, take on new meaning in the context of bathroom encounters: “We will dance the Hoochee Koochee, I will be your tootsie wootsie.”

According to a recent article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Humphreys “stationed himself at different Forest Park washrooms—the same small, stone buildings scattered throughout the park to this day.

“Humphreys noted how the men would use silent signals—call and response foot-tapping and finger-pointing—to seek out willing partners.”

If you consider the choreography of Craig’s arrest in an airport restroom, Humphreys’ impressive research indicates that the tearoom dance remains uncannily similar nearly four decades later. The pas de deux between Craig and the plain-clothed officer—consisting of coded toe-tapping replete with Bob Fosse hand gestures—was intended to lead to some man-on-man action.

Nearly 100 years ago in Boise, Idaho—yes, the state represented by Sen. Craig—the management of the Boise Valley Traction Company hired one of its employees to spy through a hole in the men’s room ceiling. As a result of his unlawful surveillance, two men were each sentenced to five years in the Idaho State Prison. Talk about traction.

“Gay sex of whatever nature, including public sex, needs to be understood within the sociological and historical context,” according to Dr. Doug Sadownick, director of the LGBT specialization in clinical psychology at Antioch University, award-winning author, activist and licensed psychotherapist. “All of us have survived, by the skin of our teeth, thousands of years of homophobia and social condemnation. Modern gay liberation, as an effort to fight back against this repression for ourselves and society as a whole, is only a few generations old.”

Peter Cashman, founder of ACT UP, cites everything from lovers’ lanes to drive-in movies as expressions of public sex. “For queers to engage in these accepted rites of passage, as their non-gay peers did, was at the risk of arrest or death, so queer folk had to be more creative and incredibly careful,” he says.

“Public sex has always been a part of gay sex sub-culture and mythology,” according to Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Speculation on men's motivation for taking these risks is as complicated as deciphering all sexual tastes, and it is not our job to judge it.”

Is acting out sexually in public places a sickness? “The disease, if there is one, is not necessarily in the expression of the libido, but in the disease of societal homophobia that enters like a Trojan horse into the citadel of our sexuality and aims at thwarting us in our being and erotic core,” Sadownick replies.

“It's the male hunting instinct,” says Cashman, referring to the sport that can be punishable by law. “[It’s] a sense of adventure and risk, which is an essential male thing, not just a gay thing.”

In the wake of the Craig scandal, Jim Naugle, the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., plucked the opportunity to make it a gay thing. Defining gay public sex on Fort Lauderdale's beaches as a health threat, Naugle said, “The health department, based on past statistics, estimates that around 500 people in Broward County are going to contract HIV from men having sex with men.” The mayor said that the local health department estimates that 74 percent of HIV cases are the result of male homosexual activity.

Not true, according to Weinstein. “Public sex is not at the highest risk for the spread of HIV and STDs because it usually involves oral sex which is relatively lower risk and is less likely to involve drugs such as crystal meth. Bathhouses provide a much better environment for disease transmission because they facilitate the opportunity for multiple anal encounters, with or without protection.”

Ralph Bolton, editor of The AIDS Pandemic, writes, “In an era of increasing sexual repression, attacks on radical sexual expression are being launched from all quarters: aging gay liberationists, a medical establishment mired in outmoded models, pandering right-wing politicians and profiteering religious fanatics. So-called public sex is an easy target for the anti-sex, anti-pleasure opportunists.”

Whatever the particulars—the activities, the reasons, the locations, the outcomes—gay sex in public places is something that will remain on the agenda as the modern gay liberation movement evolves. Do we cling to our libidinous nature and continue our pursuit of illicit sexual encounters because they are part of our gay ancestry? Or do we attempt a behavioral transition by avoiding dangerous situations that can potentially result in disastrous personal, professional and legal ramifications? Or can we find a way to incorporate our sexual impulses safely, without damaging our individual or collective spirit? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves—and each other.

Michael Kearns can be reached at www.michaelkearns.net.