Gayville’s absolutely a-buzz over the crackdowns on Fire Island. According to earlier reports, park rangers arrested at least three men for lewd conduct. Well, it turns out there haven’t been any arrests, reports bar rag Next via Towleroad:
A call to the National Park Service that polices the cruisey passage between The Pines and Cherry Grove revealed that over the past two weekends there have been two incidents with park rangers and five citations have been given out – two on June 15, one for disorderly conduct and one for possession of a controlled substance, and three on June 21, all for disorderly conduct. Both incidents involve men having sex in the area properly known as Carrington Tract. A rep for the Park Service said that no arrests have been made…
Park Services also insist that they’re not going after the gays, but simply have more money for personnel to patrol and are simply doing their jobs.
Damn you federal funding! Damn you!
Qjersey
take it deeper into the bushes dimwits
wtf
Or just stop having sex in public. I hope the rangers keep “doing their jobs,” for fuck’s sake. No pun intended.
fredo777
Stop having sex in public, indeed.
I didn’t mean that sarcastically, I mean, seriously, get a fuckin’ motel room.
Pun very much intended.
Gregoire
There are lots of places to have sex on Fire Island. Just break into somebody’s unoccupied home!
Trenton
How dare these “activists” invoke a word like “Nazi” to describe people who are doing everyone a favor by citing their filthy, exhibitionist asses… Respectable queers most of all owe a debt of thanks to the rangers for chasing scum like that out of public places. I wish I could be there to cram their protest paraphernalia down their over-eager throats.
hisurfer
I’ve only been to Fire Island once, and I loved the one hot late summer-night I wandered into the Meat Rack.
You can call us all the names you want; while some of you were at home clutching your rosaries and with your panties all in a bunch, some of us were wandering through the woods under the full moon and having a night that would make Dionysus proud.
jimbo
This is BS they are saying they were cut back in Boston and can not patrol the Boston Espanola and that there will be no bike rangers this year BS
wtf
Wow, because I don’t believe you should schlep your cock out in public, obviously I was at home and clutching my rosary beads. What wonderful logic. Oh and Dionysus was the patron of wine, celebration, and the theater, to name a few; he was known to invoke ecstasy and to rid people of their cares. He was not, as you seem to believe, the patron of meth and cocksucking under the moon.
RPCV
And with signs and actions like this, the gay community expects to gain acceptance and tolerance???? Akin to the flamboyant, meth-filled queers and dykes at last weekend’s Baltimore Gay Pride who erroneously attempted to demonstrate how mainstream gays are nowadays and how deserving we are of fair treatment…. And, we think we deserve the right to marry? Think again………..
Trenton
Hisurfer: If you want to rut outdoors with strangers…fine. There are plenty of places that you can do it that are more secluded and appropriate for that sort of behaviour. The main reason that this is offensive is not that this happens, but rather that this outarged minority is actually invoking such symbols of repression and claiming to be victimized when A) no harm has come to them B) what they are doing is illegal C) as long as this place and the environs are visited by families and children, any queer with an ounce of dignity would think twice about the possible repercussions of the action, let alone make it a political issue.
And if you are going to invoke a licentious Greek god, try Pan, though I’m feeling a bit like a Maenad myself, ready to tear limb from limb the grotesque fairy who started this mess.
hisurfer
I think the protest is a bit odd, and don’t like the comparisons to Nazis …
but how much more secluded can you get than this place? The only people walking in the woods between Cherry Grove and the Pines at midnight are gay men either coming home from a party, going to a party, or out cruising.
Didn’t the Maenad’s serve Dionysus (Not that I knew that … I had to look it up)?
David Johnson
I’m the guy who posted the flyers. Yes, the word “nazi” was over the top and I apologize. I was fired up by the apparent encroachment into our traditional cruising spot. I’m not advocating public sex, but I deeply respect the hard won victories of the pioneers 40 years ago.
As I said it’s not about sex in the woods…it’s about autonomy and self determination in the gay community. It’s easy to preach about fiddling with each other in the bushes, but every time we surrender a hard won victory we lose a little more of our freedom.
I smelled smoke and called the alarm. I will be monitoring the situation…and yes, i’ll scream bloody murder if the sex police resume their patrols through the bushes
No one defends people having sex out in the open..these guys were roaming through the bushes looking for trouble.
Sex police roaming through the bushes looking for men having sex is a ridiculous waste of scarce tax dollars. It’s happening all over the country.
Bush’s last stand for the Christian right?
We shall see…
I apologized for the verbal excess…I make no apologies for sounding the alarm. If it continues, I’ll be back with a vengance!
David Johnson
[email protected]
David Johnson
One more important point…
The FINS public relations people stated that “no arrests were made”. However, Ranger Swindle told me face to face that federal charges would be filed and arrests made in the future.
By the FINS definiton, suspects were handcuffed and some were taken into custody, but because they were issued citations, technically they were never “arrested”.
This is a semantics game. If you found youself handcuffed and taken into custody, wouldn’t you consider that being “under arrest”? I sure would.
My primary goal is to prevent good people from facing life altering charges. To that end I may have gone way over the top.I apologize for that.
I do not apologize for my call to action.
Lewd Conduct in a public place is a sex crime. Convictions may result in jail time. The California Supreme Court determined that a single conviction for misdemeaner lewd conduct subjects one to lifetime registration as a sex offender.
Here’s the question: Do you want your tax dollars spent on sex police roaming through the bushes looking for men having sex? Because that’s what happened, and I saw it.
David Johnson
Barbara Ann Levy
Well..what a mess! I am the former gallery owner in the Grove. I have been away for two years but found this blog and so of course felt compelled to respond.
My take: The rangers are doing their job. They need to do this to prevent all kinds of problems. I don’t believe they want to hurt any gay men in the process and they don’t want to lose their jobs either.
So my suggestion would be take it home or deeper into the bushes off the main paths and you will be just fine I suspect.
Remember this is a post 9-11 world and Fire Island is a NATIONAL seashore and could be a soft target for some nut job! Keep this in mind.
witness
I cant enjoy walking through the Carrington Tract to Cherry Gorve because people like Dave are out there making a mess of the environment. You cannot walk through the woods their without seeing trash laying everwhere. It is specific trash like used condoms, condom wrappers, personal lubricant packets etc.
I cant imagine what families think when they use the Carrington Tract as a short cut between our communities? Dave obiviously does not care! He probably thinks if they dont like it dont come through here, but it is the middle of the afternoon in the summer. Not at night like Dionysus proud guy says.
David Johnson exaggerates and leaves detail out of his stories, so he looks like a good guy. Also one of his three flyers he made and plastered all over the pines. Stated specifically that he wanted to physically harm a federal police officers. What exactly did it say? Also at what time of the day did you speak to these rangers? In the middle of the afternoon right!
I think you should take a look at As The Grove Turns. Richard has the right idea with getting people together and siting down to talk about this issue. Dave does not want to do this just wants to point fingers.