Manhattan’s Chelsea district may be known as the city’s premier gayborhood, but its supposedly liberal residents there say they’ve officially reached the limit to their tolerance when it comes to gay sex shops.
The neighborhood just had it’s fifth gay sex shop open up along a five-block stretch on Eighth Avenue. And it turns out, five is the unlucky number.
“It’s starting to feel like Times Square around here,” Stephen P. Williams told the New York Times.
Williams said he’s tired of seeing things like Boy Butter (“a revolutionary creamy formula”) and penis-enlargement systems (“used successfully for 30 years with 15 million satisfied customers”) being advertised in large window displays.
Yes, and the crap that chain stores peddle is so much more pleasing. Plus, where else would J.Lo’s boytoys like Casper Smart who are on the downlow possibly go and get photographed in the process?
One man described as a “father” told the Times that he was recently cooking dinner with his 6-year-old son. When he asked him to get the olive oil, the child replied: “Dad, why don’t we use the Boy Butter?”
Related: Right-Wing Mayor’s Family-Values Platform Foiled By Pesky Gay Sex Shop Receipts
Neighbors also say they regularly find used condoms and latex gloves in front of their homes and see men having sex on playground benches, though police beg to differ.
“We aren’t seeing what they are seeing,” Deputy Inspector Michelle Irizarry said, “and they are not calling us to these locations when they see these things.”
Corey Johnson, the openly gay councilman who represents Chelsea, says he hopes to find a common ground between neighbors and shop owners.
“Chelsea, as a neighborhood, is known around the world as a place of diversity and inclusion,” he said. “One of the challenges that neighborhoods face is how to balance local concerns.”
Good luck with that, councilman.
Related: Keep Your Nipples Unclamped! Newly-Released Documents Reveal Maggie Thatcher Wanted To Ban Sex Toys
Hermes
Is there any proof of this? How many of those objecting are named? It could just as easily be Right wing trolls – they know how to manipulate Social Media and public opinion – and frankly “a father” is a very vague description.
Hermes
Avery Alvarez
“When he asked him to get the olive oil, the child replied: “Dad, why don’t we use the Boy Butter?””
Yeah right! That never happened!
This reminds me of those Creepy christians who bitch and moan, “If i see a gay couple holding hands, I’ll have to explain the process of anal sex to them!!!!”
You and your brats can always move?
enfilmigult
New parents trying to reshape their entire neighborhood to be toddler-friendly are the fucking worst. And yes, they will lie to make it happen—I’m not buying these stories of crazy public sex until somebody produces some evidence. Deal with the fact that your kids are going to ask awkward questions about stuff or move to the suburbs.* Hoboken has already been taken over by people like this, enjoy.
*And then realize you’re not going to be able to avoid awkward questions anyway, because they’re frigging kids.
AtticusBennett
UGH. lame.
dear milquetoast homos, you owe your lives and families to SEXUAL LIBERATION so stop trying to piss all over it, eh?
this is so stupid. these people are so dumb, they shouldn’t even have kids.
Giancarlo85
Lulz. Maybe these puritans should go visit Europe some time… Like Holland, Spain, Germany… These countries are far more liberal. You would wonder… Sex being viewed as dirty in America explains the higher rates of teen pregnancies and STDs. People won’t discuss it and don’t want sexual images around. Time to be more open, America. Even in your so called liberal cities.
Glücklich
Don’t live in Chelsea with children. Seems pretty simple to me. Battery Park is just down the street if parents insist on raising kids in Manhattan. It’s pretty dead down there.
Avery Alvarez
@enfilmigult: Ooops, I should edit my comment to say;
“If i see a gay couple holding hands *while I’m out with my kids*, I’ll have to explain the process of anal sex to them!!!!”
Avery Alvarez
@enfilmigult: Opps again, I accidentally replied to your comment instead of my own.
polarisfashion
Ugh for the last time, we did not have sex on the playground bench, it was on the teeter-totter!
Bob LaBlah
“One man described as a “father” told the Times that he was recently cooking dinner with his 6-year-old son. When he asked him to get the olive oil, the child replied: “Dad, why don’t we use the Boy Butter?”
This QUITE possible lie notwithstanding I would advise those who cruise thru those shops to be EXTREMELY careful. It seems like yesterday morning (though it has been right at 8 years) when the NYPD were arresting gay men in those video arcades with all kinds of accusations. One accusation that will always stand out to me was the one where a guy flies in from Europe, checks into the Waldorf-Astoria (the one where rooms START at damn near $900 per night) and then goes over to the video arcade (according to the arresting officer) tells a TWENTY-SOMETHING year old under cover cop that for twenty dollars he will blow him. Imagine that. A middle aged man from Europe checks into one of the top three most expensive hotels in NYC and goes and turns tricks on 8th ave. And yes, had the guy not pleaded guilty and went to trail a jury would have been expected to believe that shit.
I am NOT shocked that people do shop in those stores (personally I too prefer to see and touch what I am buying rather than this online shopping shit that is the latest craze these days) but as far as the arcades go I AM shocked they still cruise there. Be careful out there.
barkomatic
I actually live in Chelsea and there is definitely a growing bias against gay oriented businesses in the neighborhood. A gay bar was simply *looking* at spaces in the area, and when the news broke there were flyers posted from “concerned residents” urging us to oppose the opening of a noisy gay bar. Of course, World of Beers is slated to open soon on the same block with no opposition.
Also, the new sex shop they are referring to is actually oriented and marketed toward straight people. Some of the new residents, straight *and* gay are trying to scrub the area of its character and history. Apparently, we need more chain stores and high end condos.
Glücklich
I’d nominate the Financial District, too, as a sterile dead zone – one of the reasons I chose it instead of something further north – but I don’t want a ton of kids running around down here. It’ll be bad enough with summer intern season around the corner.
brionc29
Um…. I have worked in Chelsea for many years and am very familiar with the neighborhood. The part about the used condoms and latex gloves in front of homes is absurd. Who are these folks making such complaints??
AtticusBennett
@barkomatic: it happens all over the world. in evert country, we gays turn an undesirable ‘hood into an awesome space. enter white yuppies with strollers, who cause the rents to go up, apartments to go condo, and suddenly the gayborhood is a white yuppie paradise. so we move on and create a new one. and the same thing happens after around 20 years.
Bob LaBlah
@brionc29: No doubt in my mind they were left there by those who are complaining. If lotion in placed in a condom it will “appear” to be semen until it is analyzed. It is too hard to believe how NONE of those condoms that are lying out in the street are ever found “dirty”, if you get my drift. I mean, what else would a latex glove……..let me leave it at that. I would then have to ask just how much time did the “perverts” have to have sex without being caught.
lauraspencer
Chelsea hasn’t been New York’s premiere gay neighborhood for a few years. That “honor” has been passed to Hell’s Kitchen.
Slowly over the past 10 years gay bars have closed in Chelsea (Splash, Rawhide, XL, etc. leaving Gym Bar, Barracuda & G Bar in Chelsea and Boxers and Eagle on the outskirts. Hell’s Kitchen has Therapy, Industry, DBL, Barrage, Flaming Saddles, Ritz, Boxers, 9th Avenue Lounge, etc.
Over the past few years most of the gay “businesses” opening in Chelsea sadly have been sex shops. Gone are the resturaunts like Food Bar, clothing stores, gyms and book stores like Rainbows & Triangles. I don’t think Chelsea residents are against gay businesses just the sex places. I would be annoyed too. Along 8th Avenue there are so many empty storefronts and it seems only the sex places are paying the rents.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140204/chelsea/vacant-storefronts-line-eighth-ave-as-high-rents-force-out-businesses
Charlie in Charge
Better than another Pottery Barn.
edwardnvirginia
Let’s use a libertarian principle: legally competent and mentally capable adults can buy any legal thing that they can afford.
So, if we’re talking about legally in-competent persons – e.g. not of legal age – they should not be allowed to buy things that cannot buy.
So, if we’re talking about mentally un-capable persons – e.g. considered under law or regulation at risk emotionally or psychological or morally – they should not be allowed to buy things that increase their vulnerability to harm
So, if we’re talking about things that they cannot legally purchase – e.g. child pornography, illicit drugs, embargoed foreign products, etc – the products should not be sold.
We could, alternatively, use a communitarian principle: community stakeholders have a role together in making communal decisions.
How can the local community get together to discuss all relevant issues? how can they satisfy the many interests involved?
Bob LaBlah
@lauraspencer: For those bars that are open have you noticed the price of the drinks? I retired and moved back home to the midwest a few years ago and think every single day that the amount I was paying in rent in NYC could have bought my home in cash.
jason smeds
I have to agree with the residents of Chelsea. It’s time to shut down these sleaze pits.
Whenever “gay rights” gets out of hand, it morphs into a sleazy belief system. Everything revolves around the sex act. Sleaze is marketed and promoted.
Don’t deny it.
Then the “gay community” has the gall to hide behind the “gay rights” notion to justify it’s promotion of sleaze.
Bauhaus
@AtticusBennett:
We sure do! Leave it to the gays to come in and fix-up some shit hole/seedy neighborhood. No sooner do we leave our mark of fabulousness, in comes the baby brigade, up goes the rent and prudishness, out go the gays.
Franklin
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Puritans landed on these shores 400 years ago, and we’ve been paying for it in this country ever since. Why or why couldn’t it have been anyone else.
Bruce Dillon
Get A Grip Please & Thank You Chelsea!
(*;*()
Glücklich
@Bob LaBlah: But would rather have spent your younger working years in New York or the Midwest?
I get that same argument living in San Francisco. And they’re right of course. I could pay cash for a nice big house out in Fill-in-the-Blank for what I’m paying in rent. But then it wouldn’t be San Francisco.
lauraspencer
@Bob LaBlah:
You are right. Drinks at bars are pricey. A bottle of beer is $6. That’s why I go to happy hour when they are cheaper or have a drink or two at home before going out so I don’t spend as much at the bar.
I’m sure NYC misses you! Hope you are enjoying retirement.
money718
Two quotes from the article:
“Scott McCormick, who is gay and the father of two young children, said the neighborhood opposition is not about homophobia. “I’m pretty liberal, but I’m conservative when it comes to raising children,” he said. “There are several schools in the neighborhood — every day we’re walking past these stores 10 times.”
“A father of a young child said that he would like to see the shops shuttered. But he also said he didn’t feel he could speak publicly because as a younger man, he would visit sex shops. “It would be hypocritical,” he said.
Makes me sick to my stomach.
jwtraveler
If straight families or straight-identified gay families feel uncomfortable in Chelsea, they should try moving to a family-friendly place, like THE REST OF THE F—ING WORLD. I hear Times Square is nice for families since Giuliani kicked out the sex shops and turned it into Disneyland.
jwtraveler
@jason smeds: The internalized homophobia isn’t working for you. It’s not nearly as amusing as your usual insanity.
Giancarlo85
@edwardnvirginia: Thanks for proving that libertarianism is absolute bullshit.
@jason smeds: Thanks for proving how much of a self hating bigot you are. If you were in Europe you would cover your sensitive eyes.
Glücklich
@jwtraveler:
http://nypost.com/2014/07/13/tourists-hawkers-costumed-pests-overrunning-times-square/
Was just in the neighborhood last week for a conference, otherwise avoid it like the plague. It really is awful.
Bob LaBlah
@Glücklich: I see your point and say this: I don’t beat myself up for staying in NYC and the east coast overall for right at thirty years. I enjoyed every day of it. When I hit the big 4-0 in the late 1990’s I began to say to myself more and more “there is NO WAY you are going to be able to buy ANYTHING here in NYC except a broom closet like these other idiots are doing and even then you will NEVER see the day you actually make the last payment”.
I decided to start saving to come’on back home and get the house a few hollers down from ol’ Snuffy, Elviney and even enjoy seeing my old teacher Miss Prunelly (whom we personally used to call the old witch when we were kids). Yes, I was raised on Country Sunshine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_TGzbFH0hg&spfreload=10
jason smeds
I’m sorry but selling sleaze is not a sign of open-mindedness. It’s a sign of money-making.
I’m opposed to sleazy sex shops because they sell sleaze. They really have nothing to do with sex. The reason they exist is to make money.
Sex is something that is free. Sleaze is something that involves a money transaction.
Giancarlo85
@jason smeds: Sex shops sell things to make sex more enjoyable. Since you haven’t had sex since the 1980s, why are you even discussing them?
Sidney Davies
There are straight sex shops and no one is complaining. What a bunch of bullshit.
TomOH
Is this really about the shop being a “gay” shop, or are they more frustrated with sex shops popping up all over the place in their neighborhood in general? I think it’s equally tacky when I see lingerie shops with ads for “Coochy Cream” in the window, along with their other silly merchandise. I would be equally irritated if a bunch of payday loan joints, and head/vaping shops started popping up too.
Why does every gay-deemed neighborhood or side of town have to be littered with sex shops, bath houses, strip clubs, rainbow flags and tchotchke’s everywhere? I personally wouldn’t mind a gay friendly side of town that was more classy and sophisticated – tapas bars, art galleries, indy theater, etc…
Giancarlo85
@TomOH: Weho has a bit of both of what you are discussing. Sex shops, gay clubs, ,bath houses (never been)… And more classy stuff like art galleries, drama theaters, art galleries, etc. It even depends in what part of Weho you are in. Not all gay friendly areas are all the same.
Glücklich
@Bob LaBlah:
OMG where did you get my yearbook photo?!
I’ll see your Dottie West and raise you a Bobbie Gentry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHpkYI5_FY
notevenwrong
@TomOH: “Why does every gay-deemed neighborhood or side of town have to be littered with sex shops, bath houses, strip clubs, rainbow flags and tchotchke’s everywhere? I personally wouldn’t mind a gay friendly side of town that was more classy and sophisticated – tapas bars, art galleries, indy theater, etc…”
So you want a gentrified, expensive gay neighborhood. There are already too many of them, and the rest of us cannot ever afford to live there. If you don’t want to be in a vibrant mixed-class neighborhood, go live in the suburbs, or the Village, or Chelsea (which, despite the ridiculous this article reports, is already gentrified and expensive to the extreme).
Creamsicle
Maybe it’s because I’ve never had a ton of money, but I’ve never understood the concept of moving into a trendy gay neighborhood and then trying to change it into another basic bitch neighborhood full of coffee shops. I also hate the idea that once people become parents they can’t think sex is funny any more. And sex shops are inherently funny, even on the rare occasions that you find yourself actually using them to buy toys or lube.
Realitycheck
I used to live in chelsea and still go by it often, it is one of the trendy areas of NYC
especially its highline park, and there are no condoms what so ever on the street and nobody has sex on public, guys will hold hands and kiss in public
as they should be free to do so.
Let be honest here, chelsea was gay from the 70s, any family that moves in
chelsea and complains about gay, well, why are you there?
As far as sex shops, too many do ruin the neighborhood, but there are laws in NYC regulating sex shops concentration, and I am pretty sure the area is already oversaturated,
years ago Mayor Giuliani regulated sex shops in order to break down the
Times square sex trade, and the same regulations apply to the rest of NYC,
so I wonder about that 5th sex shop, most likely they are all on different
avenues and streets.
This is like religious bigots purposely moving in castro or Christopher street,
thinking they could break down the “gay life stile” LOL
By law who is first has rights, if one doesn’t want to expose its children to
gay sex, one should not move in the most famous gay neighborhoods in the world.
Kangol
@AtticusBennett: You said it perfectly!
And to think, there were families of all kinds, including straight, gay, bi, trans, latino, black, asian-american, etc. in Chelsea, but once the neighborhoood hypergentrified and rich white people with kids started arriving in droves and driving everyone out, the complaints about LGBTIQ businesses began ramping up.
The ironic thing is that many of these people consider themselves “socially liberal.”
Glücklich
@Creamsicle:
You should see what’s happening in San Francisco.
AtticusBennett
@TomOH: because not all gay people are desperately clinging to blend into a world of Basics. that’s why.
sexual liberation was the driving force of the movement. duh.
Captain Obvious
1) The Boy Butter line is way too unbelievable. Should’ve created a better lie.
2) Why are all of these straight people moving to famous gay areas only to complain about seeing “gay” things?
3) LOL people are still going to sex shops? I thought Amazon killed all that stuff.
Honestly gentrification be damned, I’d love if gay men could get more organized, and create new gay areas when the old ones become too expensive due to lame yuppies.
Not like it’s hard to find out where the affordable real estate is anymore. When they move, you move. We’re getting spread too thin and the yuppies are winning in successfully erasing our larger populations so they don’t have to see us.
Clark35
@Glücklich: Exactly.
Plus, who still goes to porn/sex toy stores even in NYC? If you want porn, lubes, etc. you can buy them online for a lot less money than in the stores. Plus the internet is full of free porn.
Charlie in Charge
@Clark35: Sometimes it’s nice to stroll out of one’s subterranean lair and interact with other actual human beings now and again.
SteveDenver
Businesses open in response to demand and remain in business because of retail traffic. If you don’t like seeing what’s in the window, DON’T LOOK.
Bob LaBlah
@Glücklich: Nothing personal but if that is your “year book photo” I sure hope the hell that’s a wig (SMILE). Yes, for the sake of nostalgia I put smile instead of lol (which I can’t stand, to be honest).
I’ll never forget the day when that old witch, Miss “Prunelly”, wore a pant suit into class (goddam, I DECLARE I’m getting up there, aren’t I?) and how uncomfortable she looked all day long the way EVERY ONE just stared. The pants suit was actually cute, it’s just who was wearing it that floored everyone. Many of the teachers who had heard about it but hadn’t seen her yet left out of their classrooms and walked past the door two or three times that day.
That day has a lot to do with why I laugh at the old ex-broom rider when I see her. I think she knows why too.
chel0817
We have to realign this conversation, and talk about what is really going on in these sex stores on 8th Avenue. The retail portion as you walk in is just a cover for what is going on in the back. These places are glory-holes. Besides the odd tourist who wanders in, or the occasional dildo buyer, the whole set up is to wander around, try to catch someones eye, and get adjoining booths that either have a screen that rises to connect the two people, or simply a hole in the wall to stick your dick through.
The money is made by the video machines in each both that need to be fed $$$ continuously so you can stay in the booth. The demographic here is the closeted, the sex addicted, the desperate, or just folks who can’t emotionally handle any level of intimacy. They are not convivial little shops, where the neighborhood comes in to shop and connect, not at all.
The other demographic are the men that feed on the above. Hustlers, pick pockets, drug addicts, drug dealers, and the mentally ill. They come from all over the city to try and make a buck, or just to hang out. They also get drunk and high, and become more and more disruptive, harassing passers-by and fighting with each other. No one from the neighborhood would go near these places.
Nor are the businesses gay-owned or gay operated. They are money-making endeavors, they have no altruistic facet at all, they don’t care about gay people or the gay community whatsoever. I only know all of this because I was very much caught in this world when I was younger, semi-closeted, and certainly self-hating. I managed to evolve out of that, but many men don’t. I still see people going back and forth between the stores that I knew 20 years ago. I have lived in Chelsea for over 5 years, but I’ve know about these places long before them.
If you think that these places represent some kind of freedom or healthy gay identity, you couldn’t be more wrong. I wonder if any of the commenters above have even been to these places, or to places like them, but they still exist. In now way to they enhance or reflect our history, community, health or neighborhoods. They are unsafe, unclean, and soul crushing.
Sorry for the diatribe, just wanted to get the facts straight.
Wooly
@TomOH: Totally
agree.
TomOH
Good point @chel0817, your comments reminded me of an old theater in Pittsburgh that turned into an adult theater and operated for many years, to the local resident’s dismay. They wanted to regain ownership of it, and restore it to it’s former glory but the company that owned it was from NY and could care less about the neighborhood, they just kept it running to make money. Of course, people were mainly going there to hook up. Needless to say it also attracted a much seedier crowd, and it was not uncommon to get your car broken into, or see drug deals going on in that area, as well as other illegal activity.
jason smeds
I think we need to give Chelsea a good wash. It contains a lot of smelly “sex shops” which de-value the area and which contribute nothing intellectual at all.
And, please, don’t give me this bull about “sex shops” representing sexual liberation. They’re about making money first and foremost. Sexual liberation has nothing to do with it.
Sexual liberation exists in your personal attitude to sex, and has nothing to do with a commercial venture such as a “sex shop” which exists to rake in the dough.
Learn to differentiate between sex and sleaze. Sex is for free, sleaze is for payment. If you don’t understand the difference, I feel sorry for you.
notevenwrong
@chel0817, so what if there are glory holes? These gay sex spaces represent a step in sexual liberation for a lot of people who are not otherwise as privileged as you and your other upper class gays. You do know there are people who don’t even have spaces for sexual exploration besides these semi-public venues, because they are poor, live with parents of 10 roommates in a slum, and so on? They also represent a democratic aspect of queerness that is increasingly suppressed and being lost. Nowadays, heaven forbid someone should mix with anybody outside his social class. In these spaces, nobody is better than anybody else, irrespective of class, and that is a good thing.
chel0817
@notevenwrong: I understand your point, and I wish that there were other kinds of spaces for the disenfranchised that were more positively oriented. I further wish that I had any suggestions on a solution, but I don’t.
On a personal note, don’t assume that I, or everyone in Chelsea, is privileged and upper class. Some of us live in rent stabilized walk up studios. There is also a vibrant Latin community that has been in the neighborhood long before the area became gentrified, and they are still there.
I’d like to get your take on the criminal element that I talked about, if you are willing to share it. There are people being victimized in these establishments on a daily basis. There are people of all ages and orientations being harassed on the street. Have you actually spent any time in this anonymous sex world? Or in Chelsea itself?
notevenwrong
@chel0817, thank you for your courteous response and I apologize for my assumptions.
To answer your question, no, not in Chelsea, but I have spent quite a bit of time in similar venues in other cities and had many interesting sexual adventures with hot guys of every background and orientation as well as interesting conversations, believe it or not. Now and then I have run into a “working” guy, but they have always been courteous and never harassed me when I declined. In fact, I have never been harassed either by the guys who may hang out outside on the street or inside, so although I understand that it can happen, at least my experience leads me to believe that it must be rare.
chel0817
@notevenwrong: I’m glad you were able to experience the most positive aspect of this particular slice of life. My path through it, then and now, has been a lot bumpier. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of the rough and tumble nature of NYC!
Glücklich
I haven’t spent much time in Chelsea but have a live-and-let-live attitude toward sex shops with arcades and the like. Yeah, if that’s all there is in the neighborhood it might feel a little sleazy but I don’t hear about anyone being forced into such an area with a gun to their head. Aside from the possible necessity for anonymity afforded by such places, some guys get off on that and more power to them. I’ve been to my share of full-blown sex clubs and bath houses and while they’re not my thing, I’m glad they’re there to be enjoyed by men who like or need them. Like guys who have sex in parks, for some it’s the only outlet, for others it provides a thrill and that’s fine. Might even be something I’d try though the couple of times those opportunities presented themselves I couldn’t stop to satisfy that curiosity.
Bob LaBlah
@Glücklich: “I’ve been to my share of full-blown sex clubs and bath houses and while they’re not my thing, I’m glad they’re there to be enjoyed by men who like or need them.”
Well said. I still go to the bath’s because I simply can not get into this online cruising thing. I am NOT ready to let a total stranger into my home regardless of how many people I tell a “hookup” is coming over. At the bath house one MUST have a photo I.D. to get in. There is a place to check your wallet and valuables (if you are dumb enough to bring them) and a video security camera that records everyone that comes in. There not exactly cheap but the price does help keep out the riffraff that you would see in the video arcades. The Westside Club in NYC to me had just about turned into robbery charging members $24 for four hours and $30 to non-members on the weekends but their $10 admission with coupon on weekday nights made up for it in my opinion. I swear sometimes I really do miss NYC.
Not only that but at night on the weekends it is not unusual to find a bunch of younger guys who for whatever reason choose to come to the baths instead of hooking up online. Different strokes for different folks. I remember the video arcades and the rude “people” they had working back in the back whom I saw several get their asses kicked for yelling at the wrong person. They and the NYPD stings that were taking place about eight years ago took its toll. I haven’t been back since and really don’t miss them either.
Bauhaus
As a precocious teen, I would hop on the train from the Nj suburbs, to the big city. Not being of legal age to enter the sex shops, nor having I.D., I would walk back and forth, and salivate. Having the sex shops in view allowed me to believe that being gay was real, authentic; not some affliction I had.
Sidney Davies
Don’t like it. Don’t go in the shop. Simple.
Knarf Yahzie
Its not the shops its the shoppers.
Paul Galero-Phillips
I love how they think it’s catchable. People really need to grow up.
Ron Marshall
Move
Allan O'Shea
When there is demand, there is supply! Period.
Alex Williams
You’re thinking of the internet.