[Salt Lake City]
Cruising. It's nothing new — a subculture of men who seek out sexual encounters with other men in public places. Many don't identify themselves as gay. Some are married, often with children.
It's a behavior that Jerrie Buie, director of Pride Counseling, describes as complex. Men who struggle with their sexual identities sometimes stumble upon cruising. They're attracted to the anonymity, he says, but also to the social connections, the "common sense of we're all sitting here for the same reason."
Through the Healthy Self-Expressions program, Buie counsels men arrested for cruising. It's a therapeutic response to cruising that grew out of a collaboration among the gay community, law enforcement, therapists and others who got together in 2000 to address the issue.
"There are so many layers to this issue," Buie says. "It really goes beyond a bunch of men looking for sex. People in this kind of culture really struggle with a sense of orientation."
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This so-called help program is harmful. It's also embarrassing. After forty years of progress post-sexual revolution, are we really still that shameful about sex to continually pathologize people who choose to practice a certain form of it? Why is public sex a misdemeanor? To whom is it causing harm? Generally, those of us who enjoy cruising in the parks don't want to be seen. Indeed - we go to great lengths not to be seen and it's only when police specifically spend their time and energy on men cruising in parks do they find us.
ReplyDeletePolice arresting men cruising in parks is a waste of time - tell me why they're not arresting heterosexual couples who travel up to the various "lovers' lanes" all over North America? Protective services have a history of oppression and discrimination against gay men that still hasn't been worked out. The U.S. Justice Department statistics indicate that more than THREE women are killed every day by their domestic partners. Why aren't police preoccupied with ending domestic violence? Instead, they're throwing non-violent, cruising men in jails and so-called "help" programs. Tell me - which one really causes more harm?
Thanks for this great perspective!
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