Note: This is a recently excavated op-ed from 2005, written in response to an article about public sex in the now defunct publication Inside. I was reminded of it when I saw the newly published book, Make the Golf Course a Public Sex Forest!, edited by Lyn Corelle and jimmy cooper announced on Twitter. I retweeted the announcement, with no idea about the authors, and they kindly got in touch and sent me a copy. It turns out that a couple of the essays generously cite this essay and my work (many thanks to Raechel Ann Jolie, Peach Gallant, and Val Schlosberg).
The op-ed garnered a lot of support at the time of publication and it was also criticised by birders (for obvious reasons) and gay men furious about being associated with such an useemly activity. In the years since then, the mainstream LGBTQ community has attempted to erase this complex history of public sex while straights have attempted to co-opt every kind of “alternative” sexual practice in an attempt to be more queer, or something. I’m just delighted that we can still have this conversation, in increasingly complicated ways. I’m still making my way through the book, hence no review as such, but if you’re interested in the topic–and I hope you are–do follow Corelle and cooper as they make their way across the country on their book tour. And buy the book!
Recently, Chicago’s North Side paper Inside ran a story about Montrose Harbor’s Magic Hedge that should cause concern among LGBTQs. The Hedge is a man-made bird sanctuary, created on a former nuclear missile site; it’s also a cruising area. The Harbor is on a famously artificial lake shoreline. Last year, police arrested nearly 70 men for “public indecency.” Now, resurrecting complaints about cruisers supposedly disturbing migratory birds, the Chicago Park District will add fences and “No Trespassing” signs, allowing the police to “clear the area of illegal trysts in a simple and effective way.” The headline refers to cruisers as “gay prostitutes.”
“Gay prostitution” incites sexual and moral panics. The idea that gay men have anonymous sex outside their homes reinforces fears about them as the originators and carriers of AIDS. As for prostitution: In a sane society, sex work/prostitution would be legal. Regardless, cruising rarely involves money.
Cruisers often self-identify as men who have sex with men, not as “gay.” Cruising suspends divisions between classes, races, sexualities, and gender identifications. Cruising has always been an integral part of queer culture, but it’s under attack by gays fixated on respectability. Arrested men might plead guilty to save themselves from exposure. Their differing social, economic and sexual identities make them unlikely to organize as a constituency and more vulnerable as targets of harassment.
And there are the birds. The caption to Inside’s photo of the harbor reads: “Along with migrating birds, peace may return to bird sanctuary.” Peace and birds? A photo of a gull strangled by a stray condom couldn’t evoke more sympathy. Like the swallows of Capistrano, the birds of the Magic Hedge are proof of nature’s cycle of life.
In contrast, cruising is criminalized because it’s perceived as a non-procreative and unnatural activity. It’s frequently referred to as “public sex,” reinforcing a distinction between personal and private. Sex at “home” is more valued than sex “outside.” But as LGBTQs know at our cost, that distinction does not always work in our favor. We are always only one arrest away from being imperiled in our private spaces.
We’d like to believe that sex only occurs in “committed” relationships. The truth is that sex is infinitely varied in its pleasures and can be quick, silent, and anonymous. Most of us have fantasized about or engaged in fleeting encounters. Cruising allows straights and queers to commingle and part, without placing constraints upon each other. Against the cold tiles of a public restroom or in the leafy enclave of a bush, who cares about sexual identity?
We should acknowledge the pleasures of cruising and sex in “public” venues instead of criminalizing them. Public sex can bring us our first sexual encounters. And what would sex look like without voyeurism?
Opponents argue that children should not be exposed to sex in public. But cruising is usually silent and secluded. The thrill lies in sex with someone whose name you never care to know. It’s highly unlikely that a child will see something but if so, why not simply explain the circumstances? Children are resilient and able to make sense of complicated scenarios. Do we fear them learning that people have sex outside their bedrooms? Do we feel such panic when they see straight couples grope and kiss in public?
Cruising is neither gay nor prostitution. Criminalizing it will not make it disappear, especially since straights like it too much. Cruising defines a healthy sexual culture, queer or straight, and it’s a reason why we choose to live in cities. Cities are where we exercise anonymity, dispense with some identities and adopt others and, yes, engage in trysts. Lose all that and we might as well be stuck in the desert of suburbia, with its carefully trimmed bushes and its utter lack of sexual magic.
Which brings me back to the Magic Hedge. It’s a lovely and justifiably treasured space, but the talk about preserving its “natural” beauty is growing tiresome. Given its history, it’s fair to say that the sex is its oldest and most natural feature.
Nair is an academic and writer in Chicago, who likes birds.
Originally published in Windy City Times, August 1, 2005
For more on sex and such, see the articles below and, really, just cruise this website using any relevant terms.
“Polyamory Is Gay Marriage for Straight People.”
“From Queer to Gay: The Rise and Fall of Milo.”
“Bars for Life: LGBTQs and Sex Offender Registries.”
“Margot Weiss Talks BDSM and Sexuality.”
Image: “Up,” Yasmin Nair, 2023
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