Some British gays are fighting for their right to fornicate!
The battle began as Bristol city and community leaders started pushing for shrub clearance at Bristol Downs, saying such maintenance will open the area to wild life and make it more accessible for park visitors. Gay activists, however, are crying “discrimination.”
Why? Because they feel the gardening will impede their public sex plans.
Peter Wilkinson, who heads the park council, insists that he and his team will work with gay rights group the Terrence Higgins Trust to ensure no one misreads the park’s renovation. Said Wilkinson:
How about we take this to the next level?
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The general public are unhappy about people taking part in lewd behavior in public spaces, whether it’s between men and women or people of the same sex. We are working together with the Terrence Higgins Trust to make sure any work we will do is sensitive.
We’re making sure people know what we are doing so we are not seen to be discriminating.
Wait, can someone really use illegal public sex as an argument against discrimination? We understand the dangers of sexual policing, but Bristol authorities insist they don’t investigate public sex unless there’s a formal complaint. Wouldn’t it be better to just let this gardening slide, rather than raising a stink? And, what’s more, are people’s sex lives more important than something that can improve the park for everyone? Just asking…
Darth Paul
Denied. WTF? I guess if they’re homeless, this might be valid. Otherwise, it’s a sh!t claim and I’m embarrassed to be lumped with people like this.
Paul Raposo
It’s 2008 not 1958. If you can’t find a house, apartment, motel, hotel, or even a car to have sex, then you shouldn’t be having sex. Outdoor sex is nothing more than a fetish carried out by a handful of people who need to take it inside. Have sex in your own garden for Christ sake.
l
Maybe we shouldn’t have parks at all then. If you want to have one, buy some land. Many people gay and straight enjoy having sex outdoors. Once a park is known as a sex park, only people desiring sex go there. So, no one is being bothered. There are many many parks for soccer, dog walking, etc. Why can there not be one park for consenting adults to have sex? You people seem awfully concerned about our image with uptight straight people. I wouldn’t call that liberating.
Kid A
But public soccer and dog-walking are not illegal. If it’s a public park, any person should be able to go there and not be confronted with inappropriate behavior, regardless of the reputation of the park. If I go to a soccer park without a ball, I’m not going to be harassed by people who are playing. Without a dog, I’m not going to be harassed by the dog walkers. I’m with Paul on this. This seems to make gays fit the 50’s pervert stereotype (in the public eye).
blake
Ditto Darth Paul’s comment. It’s 2008, parks are for public recreation and not for public sex unless otherwise noted. Trying to make this into a discrimination case is pathetic. If someone wants to have sex in a public park, he should not expect that the park authority won’t garden the area for other purposes than hiding sex.
Given the pressure wildlife is under to survive, I’ll side with squirrels to have a home than a place for horny guys to get off. Selfish, knuckleheads…
Willie Hewes
The Rainbow Group here in Bristol is dead wrong. Public sex is not a gay rights issue, because public sex is not a right! Get a room people!
Trenton
Oh, Mr. L.
Perhaps we care about what those “uptight” people (straight AND gay) think because our concept of ‘liberation’ means being treated with dignity and respect, not having he “right” to debauch ourselves in public. If you are so desperate to screw in the bushes, get out of town with someone special and screw in a meadow. It’s more romanic than getting mulch in your trousers.
But this assumes that you would be interested in having sex that isn’t “risky” and I get the impression that you just want an easy spot for anonymous sex with the added titillation of perhaps being discovered…In which case, start your own movement with others of your ilk and all those non-uptight straight people who use the facilities in the same manner as you. Do not hop on the gay rights bandwagon with that bullshit. We have enough issues as it is.
Jonathon
It isn’t illegal. If you are not doing it in front of people then it’s perfectly fine.
RPCV
In my heyday, I loved cruising bushes. Seville, Spain, had a great cruisy area alongside the Quadalquivir just to west/north of the Torre de Oro in the mid 80’s, but when I returned in 1995, all had been cleaned up. So I went to the gay club just to the north of the center city El Corte Ingles and cruised the dark room till early morning. The Andalusian boys are so hot……..
I love that rush I get when doing naughty things, like sucking a dude off after dark in public…..
l
If a straight couple told me they enjoyed having sex outdoors I would not: feel they are not worthy of respect, assume they practice unsafe sex, or believe they need to go out in the country and trespass. This Ozzie and Harriet version of gay life some are pushing is quite tiresome.
ronN
Same sex marriage is illegal…so it shouldn’t be allowed then??? That’s the argument you prissy bitches are making against park sex. Fuck you. I love getting it up the ass by some hot stranger in the dark in the bushes. I will fight for this right to my death against homophobes and prissy queens alike.
Smokey Martini
Remember, boys: public sex NEED NOT be illegal. There ARE ways of working around it and making sure you can have your (beef)cake and eat it/’im, too.
http://www.queerty.com/cruise-away-in-amsterdam-20080313/
Designating certain zones and times for public sex — as unspontaneous as it may be — is one way to do it, which will easily allow non-interested members to avoid the park / zones at the indicated / non-indicated times.
Like the Amsterdam politico said: people are horny, they’re gonna do it regardless. So, loosen up, boys — both your bodies, your mentalities, and your laws (which, rather tautologically, are used to regulate your bodies and your mentalities). How ironic.
Yep yep.