Experts: For many gays, public sex means privacy

Seattle Times ^ | August 30 07 | Idaho Stateman

[freedomdefender]

Many men who solicit sex in public places often are conflicted sexually and seek sex in those locations to maintain anonymity, psychiatric experts say.

Dr. Fred Berlin, an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, compared homosexual sex at public places with heterosexual men who go to secret parts of town to solicit prostitutes and to drug addicts who find dealers on street corners away from their neighborhoods.

"This is not as complicated as people think," Berlin said. "It is often a case of people with very strong sexual cravings that are difficult to resist, people who are very conflicted and struggling" with their feelings and the stigma of embarrassment of having family members or the community find out.

[pandoraou812]

I have handed paper down to someone too lol. Now I really hope this is a guy thing because I dont want to get involved with any women pervs. Seriously I don’t like using restrooms as it is...Now I have this to worry about? EWWWW! I hate to be rude to anyone but I think I am going to play deaf & ignore them , & get out of the restroom asap ...lmao ~P~

[w1andsodidwe]

Dr. Fred Berlin, an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, compared homosexual sex at public places with heterosexual men who go to secret parts of town to solicit prostitutes and to drug addicts who find dealers on street corners away from their neighborhoods.

Does the good professor think that any of these behaviors are acceptable?

[Hi Heels]

"It is often a case of people with very strong sexual cravings that are difficult to resist, people who are very conflicted and struggling" with their feelings and the stigma of embarrassment of having family members or the community find out.'

So they have sex publicly? I'm lost.... Seems to me it's just a sissified excuse for inexcusable behavior.

[dr_lew]

I would get awfully upset if someone rubbed feet with me or made advances for sex to me while I was using one.

This brings up a point. If you read the police report on Smoking Gun, you see that the officer mentions making eye contact through the gaps in the stall door before Craig entered the adjacent stall. This was the actual "initial contact" and it is what egged Craig on, and explains why he persisted with the tapping etc.

The report doesn't say, "I made eye contact", but it does say that "I saw his blue eyes". He's indicating that Craig was peering into his stall, but if he saw his blue eyes, he was making eye contact!

These sorts of stings are on firm legal ground, but by any kind of common sense understanding, they are certainly "entrapment".

[weegee]

Don’t forget about not offending Bill O’Really...

[wardaddy]

is that a serious post?

[freedomdefender]

Does the good professor think that any of these behaviors are acceptable?

Apparently. As they used to say, "PhD" means "piled higher and deeper."

[wardaddy]

I understand you.

[Tired of Taxes]

The difference between American vs. Japanese restrooms might be explained by cost. It’s probably cheaper to buy stalls with partial dividers. If I owned a business, I would want to install the type you described - with dividers from the floor to the ceiling and without gaps in the doors - but it might be too expensive.

I’ll tell you, I don’t like sending my young sons into public men’s rooms to use urinals that are open for everyone to see. Urinals should be enclosed, too. (Between the germs and this weird stuff going on, I worry about sending them in there at all, as do many other parents.)

Personally, I prefer the “family” restrooms. The whole family goes in and locks the door to outsiders. There’s a toilet, a sink, a diaper changing station, in one private room.

P.S. We don’t seem to have the same problems in the women’s rooms, at least as far as I’ve noticed, anyway.

[pandoraou812]

Well from what I’ve heard some places in cities actually have holes in the sides of the walls for the men to stick it through. IMO thats disgusting not to mention it can spread STD’s, AIDS & whatever else they have. If there were complaints on harassment from pervs toward normal men & the cop was there checking things out IMO he was doing his job. IMO if you can’t use a restroom without a perv coming on to you then the cop belonged there to protect the normal men. I don’t care if you want to call it entrapment. Normal people shouldn’t have to be exposed to some creep sticking his foot into your stall or peeking into it either.

[Tired of Taxes]

Note: In the family restrooms, the toilet is enclosed in a stall, too.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Fascinating to see how the other half, well, "lives".

Good suggestions and thoughts. Take care, Good night.

[mamelukesabre]

The stall walls stop short of the floor to make it easier to clean and mop the floor. Public restroom toilets do not touch the floor for the same reason. They are mounted on the wall instead.

What I don’t understand is why we have undercover cops trolling restrooms for gays. I’m a straight guy and i would never think of calling the cops if some homo tapped his foot at me in a restroom. I’d just ignore it. If the idiot got too persistent, he’d have to answer for it with his fists, provided a few choice swear words did not back him down right dam quick.

Nothing about this story makes a lick of sense to me.

[jiggyboy]

This is not as complicated as people think," Berlin said. "It is often a case of people with very strong sexual cravings that are difficult to resist..."

Damn straight it's not complicated -- you've got a right hand, use it! Saves lots of time, money, embarassment, legal problems...

[AmericanInTokyo]

Lets “think out of the stall” creatively, and see ways to design public restrooms in the USA to discourage this kinda nonsense then!

[freekitty]

I wish they would get real.

[mamelukesabre]

I’ve been told that gay men fight eachother more often and more severely than straight men fight eachother.

[pandoraou812]

So they have sex publicly? I'm lost.... Seems to me it's just a sissified excuse for inexcusable behavior.

I agree...I think that is plain nasty & if one gets beat up for it then he rightly deserves it too. I think I am lost too with this. I never thought someone putting their hand down for paper might be a perv wanting sex. I truly hope this is a guy thing.

[Rudder]

Does the good professor think that any of these behaviors are acceptable?

No.

[endthematrix]

" I don’t like sending my young sons into public men’s rooms to use urinals that are open for everyone to see. "

Unfortunately, that's because we haven't enforced codes of proper social conduct. Now we have to worry about the person across the table, or in this case, the stall.