David Dominguez, the Palm Springs Police chief recorded on surveillance tape calling gay men “cocksuckers” and “filthy motherfuckers” while monitoring a public park sex sting, is sorry, y’all! Well, sorry he got caught.
“An inappropriate comment made by me did not display the utmost professional conduct expected from the chief of police and I sincerely apologize to the community at large,” says Dominguez (pictured) in a statement, which mentions nothing about the department targeting gays at a public park, where 19 men were arrested after “complaints” about drug use, public sex, and prostitution in the city’s Warm Sands district. “I believe we have all learned much about perception and sensitivity,” his statement adds. “While we are not perfect, we make every attempt to understand and embrace the diversity of our community.”
Dominguez’s offensive remarks — which months ago, on the record, he denied making — already has sensitivity training being foisted upon the department. And now he’s making us question his integrity! “Was the chief lying then or was he lying now, and what is the City Council going to do about it?,” wonders aloud attorney Roger Tansey, who’s representing six of the men arrested. “He was furious someone would even imply he was in the car making obscene comments. Now, it appears that he did.” And when Tansey hits up the Jan. 20 hearing for his clients in an attempt to have the charges dropped, he’s going to be sure to raise the issue: “Certainly to the extent that you have the police chief calling them names and officers down the line calling them names, I would assume a judge would agree that is discriminatory.”
ForeverGay
All these sex stings are purposefully planned by heterosexuals to attack gay men, to put felony charges on their records so they either lose their jobs or have a difficult time finding a good one for the rest of their lives. This is another thing haterosexuals do to outcast gay people from society. There are no sex stings of heterosexuals and if heterosexuals are caught in public having sex they are not charged. The sick thing about this is the citizens of Palm Springs which is largely gay will have to pay for the court case and if the plantiffs win a lawsuit will have to pay for that too. Gay people will be paying for heterosexual discrimination no matter how you look at it.
Daez
@ForeverGay: I can link you entire google pages of straight couples being convicted for having sex in public. Any self respecting GAY guy does not cruise public parks for outdoor, public trade. “Cocksuckers” is the right term in this case in my opinion because I have no desire to link these perverts with the gay community.
PatrickB
@Daez: By all means, please do post a link to straights convicted of sex in public. I’m waiting with baited breath.
Draek
I agree that any gay people behaving in this despicable and immoral manner should be arrested. Perhaps this man should not be calling them that, but i can. They are in fact what he calls them. These people are not just gay, they are vile perverts imo.
Gay people are under higher scruitiny. They have something to prove whether we like it or not. I would like to see gay people holding up moral values and behaviors and internally condemming abhorrent sexual perversions like these amongst themselves. We have to ‘police’ our own community to some degree and make it not ok to behave tis way.
These perverts are the reason people think I am also a pervert.
ForeverGay
@Daez: You have nothing. You can’t find heterosexuals charged with felonies on their first time, let alone any time, being caught in a public sex sting.
B
No. 4 · Draek wrote, “I agree that any gay people behaving in this despicable and immoral manner should be arrested.” and “Gay people are under higher scruitiny.”
Then they should arrest staight couples doing the same thing and not single out one group. “Higher scrutiny” basically means selective enforcement based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. and is illegal.
http://criminal.lawyers.com/traffic-violations/Defenses-to-Speeding-Violations.html has an example regarding speeding tickets.
Ronbo
Diez is a confirmed troll. Give the man/woman a break. He/She was raised in a repressive home where strict gender roles mandate condemnation and violence if the social norm was not strictly followed.
Pray for Diez. His/Her postings are a call for help. (Just don’t look in his/her freezer if blood makes you queezy)
Daez
@PatrickB:
http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_b3f2e9ac-c535-11df-917e-001cc4c03286.html
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/specials/weirdflorida/blog/2010/09/couple_accused_of_having_sex_i_1.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4953188.ece
Is three good enough? Seriously, if you think this is only happens with gay people you couldn’t be more wrong. It happens with straight people to. Sex in public is tactless and gross. There is no reason to put your business out there where everyone can see it.
Daez
@PatrickB:
http://www.winonadailynews.com…..03286.html
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.co…..x_i_1.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t…..953188.ece
Daez
@Daez: I couldn’t stop at just one. If you think this is a gay only problem you are sadly mistaken. There are plenty more times that straight couples have had charges pressed or been arrested for having sex in public.
Sex in public is tactless. Putting your business out there for everyone to see from the one year old child to the eighty-nine year old grandmother is just not something that should be done so that you can get your rocks off.
Daez
@ForeverGay: Perhaps, just perhaps, follow me on this one, its because there isn’t an EPIDEMIC of straight people having sex in public parks. Just a thought, after all.
Seriously, I don’t see a problem with meeting in a public park, but if two self-respecting gay men (oh wait self-respecting gay men do not cruise public parks) can not come up with $30 between them to get a “no tell motel” room for an hour, then they probably shouldn’t be having sex anyways because they most likely couldn’t afford condoms or lube either.
AfroGay
I am a cocksucker and I love every minute of it.
What is everyone fussing about? That this man said it, or that it is not true?
kayla
Wait a minute…in the year 2010 there are gay men still screwing in public parks???? WTF!! Seriously, this guy is obviously an idiot, but I have no freaking sympathy for gay men who still, in this day and age, feel the need to get screwed in a public park, throw them all in jail! Freaking Pervs!! I certainly don’t want anyone turning a park in my neighborhood into some sort of late-night brothel and if I saw any deviants doing the nasty, I would have absolutely no compunction about calling the police…only freaks and weirdos still have sex like it’s pre-Stonewall!! Lock them up!!!Get a room already!!
kayla
As a woman…let me make it clear to everyone, the ONLY BITCHES having sex in public parks are getting paid by the hour! The average woman does not go to public parks to get f#@!ed!!! We have a little more respect for ourselves than that!! I have never met a self-respecting woman who would allow a man to take her to a public park to have sex, and women do not go cruising, for obvious safety reasons….not to mention basic morality…
belkowta
Daez,
Thank you for making that point. Public lewdness is wrong whether straight or gay. And gay men no longer have the excuse that we have no place to congregate. Gay clubs and bars are everwhere.
I get tired of reading comments from people thinking that every act against the gay community is a personal attack. If these men are acting against the law, they should be prosecuted. And I agree also that straight crimes of the same nature are also being prosecuted. Along with this, prostitution “stings” have occurred for decades.
Franky
Ummm yeah… As a few other people have said, why the hell are they having sex in a public park? We have websites dedicated to finding you someone to hookup with. Gay clubs are pretty much for the same thing. There are many different ways to hook up with people that aren’t as disgusting at the public park and won’t leave you open to so much risk. Thinking about the risks before you do something is always a good thing to do.
DR
Agreed. While the comments were not appropriate, the fact of the matter is that just because the Chief said a bad word doesn’t mean these guys weren’t out there exposing themselves in the park. That is seriously wrong. No excuse for it in 2010.
Bboater
I agree as well. Go to jail for public sex. Get called a cocksucker for having public sex. The chief should stay. Get a motel room. Control your deviant sexual urges. See a counselor/psychiatrist.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
What are these guys trapped in some kind of cruise area time warp???
Anyone now can hook safely and secure 24/7 with that new internets thingy…………….
Terry T
I am flying out today and will not return to Palm Springs until he resigns!
Jaroslaw
DR & Daez – you missed the boat on this one. I think Forever’s point is that these police operations are targeted, planned, spend lots of police budget dollars as if there is no other crime. This is not to say straight people never get in trouble, but they are NOT the targets of sting operations unless it is prostitution and they are NOT on felony sex offender lists for the rest of their lives.
A local story here, in the newspaper, not word of mouth -a guy was arrested for being an annoying person (lingering or something was the official charge) and his car was towed – had to pay an impound fee etc. Luckily he had a timestamped receipt for a late DVD rental in his pocket to prove he was only at the park for a few minutes. Many other Gay men weren’t so lucky. So… this guy wasn’t even DOING anything of a sexual nature. Maybe he had a rainbow shirt on, but I hope you guys aren’t going to try to tell me straight people are targeted like this are you? And I’m not saying cruising in parks/bathrooms is a good thing. I don’t do it.
Rick Gold
Those who fling the word “cocksucker” usually enjoy doing so.
Also, his 70’s era pornstache does not HELP his argument.
Jaroslaw
And I think this guy should be fired. If he had admitted it the first time, okay, but he denied it and now he’s caught on tape? How could he ever be trusted to make ethical decision or testify truthfully in the future?
My2Sense
Fire the Man, It’s only the beginnning
for the him. Behavior like that do not change overnite. Men in P.S. should already have his badge in there hands. Your tax dollars funding bigotry. DO NOT TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN!!! Send the same message he was sending only speak with force and volume!!! Please!!! His actions promote the very bulling mentallity that is responsiable for the killings and suicides that are happening everyday, so please do not let this slide by….
Markie-Mark
@Jaroslaw: Thank you. You are right.
Markie-Mark
@My2Sense: Very well said. We are paying police officers’ salaries. Crimes are not being solved, but officers are hanging out in bathrooms and parks and beaches bullying gays.
Markie-Mark
@Daez: None of those links work. Nice try. When a female undercover agent in sexy clothing starts begging straight men to touch her breasts and then arrests them, I’ll buy your stupid argument. Men like sex. They always have, except for ugly, stupid ones.
Jaroslaw
#23 my 2sense – you are so right, behavior like this doesn’t change overnight. Heck, this is 2010. It is most unfortunate a man in his position even THINKS this way, much less says it out loud.
Jaroslaw
#26 – Markie – Daez didn’t notice when he copied, it omitted the middle part of the address – that is what those dots mean. At least I hope it was inadvertent.
And female police DO entrap straight men, but they are going after PROSTITUTION.
This is a very different thing than men being attracted to one another. As long as there is no money involved.
John (CA)
While I cannot fathom why anyone would want to do this in a public park, I am forced to agree with the learned Mr. Tansey. If he can prove that the police were targeting his clients solely on basis of their sexual orientation, then a dismissal is the most probable outcome. Simply setting up a checkpoint and randomly going after homosexual public displays of affection is a definite no-no. Sending in undercover vice officers to entrap them is also suspect.
There has to be a legitimate complaint.
That is, the complainant cannot go to the space in question specifically for the purposes of being offended. They have to be engaging in other business (e.g. minding their shop, walking the dog, driving home). The lewd behavior has to be unexpected, spontaneous, and out of the ordinary to a “reasonably neutral” observer. If you are working for the Family Research Council and are attending the pride parade only to get someone arrested, for instance, that won’t fly.
At least not in this particular state.
ewe
Public servants and anyone in their place of employment have no right to be speaking this way and should be terminated. It would happen immediately if the chief said “nigger”. If you want to say cocksucker, faggot, nigger, kike, or cunt then do it on your own time.
Draek
I’m really flabbergasted at all of you who are totally excusing these gay men’s behaviour. You are focusing on this jackass cop and not denouncing the behaviour of the men he arrested.
Sting operations for gay sex in parks definitely should be occurring, they should arrest them ALL and put them all in jail. Not because they are gay, but because they are acting like idiots and perverts and should be jailed.
This is not “bullying gays” like someone said in the comments, this is bullying PERVERTS IN PARKS. I am gay, and I am NOT one of those people. Those people make me sick.
I’m shocked and totally embarrassed that ANYONE in this forum would actually turn a blind eye to this behaviour and focus on the police officer’s comments.
What would be helpful is if gay people would stop being perverts in parks, so that there is no need for operations like this.
Man…. so backwards. We’ll never gain the respect of society if gay people keep treating sex this way, and keep doing it in public places.
I’m sickened and ashamed of anyone here who turns a blind eye to this crime.
You can get angry all you want about the cops comments, but it will never change. We call prostitutes on the street many names, this is no different. Those gay people bring perverts in the parks deserve these comments because of their behaviour.
Now if the police officer was calling NON-criminal gay people that same word, THEN we would have the right to get really really angry about it. But this, I feel they deserve the comments prescribed to them.
I would call them the same thing.
ewe
@Draek: I see straight people eating themselves on park benches, malls and parks everywhere. They go on not bothered by anyone. As a matter of fact, many times they receive smiles from passersby. Secondly, a cop setting up gay men to make a move on him by rubbing his crotch is hardly worth defending. I certainly am not going to put down gay men. What would be helpful is if cops did not target gay men. This incident is more evidence they do exactly that. You can talk all you want about behavior but it means squat cause you are ignoring deliberate sting operations against minorities. Do the police send scantily clad girly girls into the park flashing her tits and ass while bending over to frame straight boys??? NO ASSHOLE. They do not. You are misled.
ewe
@Draek: I apologize for calling you an asshole. That was uncalled for. Sorry for saying that. Everything else stands.
Draek
LOL, your comments mean nothing to me.
So you are saying if someone propositions you in a park, you are incapable of saying “WOAH Hold the phone, this is inappropriate!”
If a cop was to put the sting operation on me, it would fail, because I have respect for myself, and would not respond.
If you would get caught, its because you are a pervert who would have sex in a park.
Lame rebuttal, you have brought nothing to the table.
ewe
@Draek: No, i am saying that the police are targeting gay men. By the way, people who have sex in parks do not necessarily disrespect themselves. Their boundaries are just different from yours. The only thing you bring to the table is excuses to perpetuate homophobia and your own brand of morality. The cops are the ones who are specifically propositioning gay men. What don’t you get? You still haven’t answered why the tits and ass aren’t going full force in the parks.
ewe
Undercover twat!!! Where is it? Not in the park?
ewe
there would be an open line if there was free pussy in DA park. lol
ewe
there would be a line if there was free hoochi in DA park!!! lol
DR
@John (CA):
The attorneys are not pursuing entrapment as a reason for dismissal. Their basis for the dismissal is the alleged discriminatory practices of this particular police department.
Here’s a link to the complaint: http://www.kesq.com/download/2010/1122/25882323.pdf
@Jaroslaw:
I never said they shouldn’t go after the straights. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t go after the gay guys, either.
Let’s be realistic about this for a moment. The office may be engaging in discriminatory prosecution (which it appears they are), but that doesn’t mean the men in question didn’t break the law.
The defense will probably concede that these men broke the law. The basis for the request for dismissal is “my client may have done this, but since the prosecution is selective, the cases should be dismissed” not “my client didn’t do anything wrong and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Draek
Ewe, look who’s talking about your own brand of morality!!!
We should do an online poll, “Is having sex in public parks acceptable?”
And lets see if this is just my own brand of morality.
If you believe sex in parks is moral, then you sir, are immoral. Plain and simple.
I’m done with replying to your comments, you aren’t bringing in anything intelligent to the table with your comments. You are basically forcing me to troll a topic with nonsense rebuttals.
Moving on to something else…
ewe
@Draek: Good. go away with your dismissiveness. The issue is not sex in the park when the only people being targeted are gay men so keep your moral thumping thank you very much. When the police start flashin tits and ass to target straight boys in the same damn park, like i said for the third time which you continue to conveniently ignore, then we can talk all about your “appropriateness.”
Daez
@Markie-Mark: They should work, if they do not then take an initiative, go to google, type in “straight couple caught having public sex” and scroll through the pages of responses.
Seriously, why do we blame the police while defending these freaks? I do not want my nieces and nephews, who are younger to be afraid to enter the bushes at a public park because they might find two dudes fucking.
If this had been a raid on private residence or hotel, then by all means, I would call for a resignation. It was not.
Also, just because he didn’t remember saying “cock sucker” doesn’t mean he was lying. I’m willing to bet many of you can not remember every word you said yesterday or even an hour ago.
Oh, and I just love the “real crime” argument, because after all real crime happens so often (which is why national crime statistics are down). Maybe, you would all like the police to get back to handling DWB cases instead.
Jaroslaw
DR – you’re right to say they SHOULD go after straights of course, but THEY DO NOT. There isn’t room to write everything here, but again, well documented, straight sex is winked at all the time. Gay sex is prosecuted. THAT is a problem.
And HOW it is done is a problem. There was a guy right here on Queerty who said his friend was in the bathroom, young, good looking 28 years old, an also young, muscular police officer rubbed his crotch, was semi-hard and said “gee, I wish I had someone to help me with this.” The friend said “I normally don’t do this…” and was arrested. The friend did NOT touch the police officer. So what is the definition of public sex? I think if you’re going to arrest people SOME kind of sex should be taking place which is why you have cameras, not decoys. Further, If two men touch non-genital areas and kiss, I bet they will be arrested, but if straights do it, they will not.
And then you have to wonder why guys go the park at all. There was a story from Adrian Michigan probably 20 years ago; where guys went on Sunday after midnight, way behind the normal park area over a hill, through the woods and down in a secluded area. This was “for those in the know only.” How the police found out, I do not know. I think they caught married men, lots of people they didn’t expect etc. etc. But I fail to see how this endangered or bothered anyone. Even if it was technically public sex.
Did someone apologize for calling another poster a vulgarity?
ewe
Heterosexual counterpart depiction:
Judge judge, i couldn’t control my heterosexuality. There was a fish in the sea right before me and i had a hard on judge so….. I am gonna be enterin the military judge.
Ok straight boy, lucky guy, loose girl, unfortunate accident. Case dismissed.
Spike
Err, it’s the closeted married guys that are cruising public park bathrooms. Plenty of action going on in the Warm Sands area for the self respecting horny out gays!
ewe
@Spike: LMAO. i completely forgot that extrememly important documented FACT. So true. thank you for reminding us all.
ewe
@Daez: yeah, your little nieces are in the park bushes at midnight? lol Uh where the fuck are the parents?
ewe
@Jaroslaw: You bring up a very good point. What if someone wants to take the cop up on his own suggestion and asks him over to his house? He probably still gets arrested and the cop of course lies under oath if the gay man has enough self pride in being openly gay and demanding due process through a trial. I doubt there are a lot of guys who go to trial. That is why this continues. It’s a lucrative piggy bank for the municipality.
ewe
Meanwhile this chief is going around the office calling gay men a bunch of cocksuckers and people actually are discussing whether or not he deserves to be reprimanded? Unbelievable. Discrimination if ever there was.
Draek
I like how you leave out the one small tidbit of information in your comments.
They are not JUST gay men. They are gay men caught having sex in public parks.
Hence, the cocksuckers comments.
You are sounding like a misinformer more than anything…
Daez
@ewe: Police send scantitly clad girls down the street to pick up straight guys cruising for “pay to play” sex a great deal more than they raid the public park.
Those straight people are making out. There is a far cry from making out to going down on someone in the middle of the shopping mall. Once penises get groped and clothes start to come off the straight couple is getting asked to leave.
Trust me, I’ve kissed enough men in public to know that simply kissing isn’t going to get you jailed for life. Fucking each other in front of children and other witnesses is a different scenario.
Daez
@ewe: Police raid “pay to play” Johns repeatedly. Making out in public, gay or straight, is not nearly the same as having sex in public. If a straight couple started fondling each other in public, they would be charged with indecent exposure. Think about this logically, there are still public indecently laws and cases of those laws being enforced in areas that have never once arrested a gay guy under those laws, why?
Jaroslaw
Draek – if the police chief was simply disparaging criminals, then he should have said so INSTEAD OF LYING ABOUT IT.
If that is acceptable to the community that is paying him, then so be it. But he knew it was wrong, that is why he lied about it. If you expect everyone else to obey the law, and don’t mind putting people on a lifetime felony sex offender registry, then YOU of ALL people should expect the chief of police to TELL THE TRUTH. YES?
And I am not excusing these guys, but stuff like this really makes us a sex-negative society. I doubt very seriously if these guys are so blatant that you can see all the action. Yet people are traumatized for life by emotionally abusive parents, teachers, bullies at school. But fixing those problems doesn’t MAKE money, those COST money. So what do you think gets addressed???????
John (CA)
@DR: Based on what I have read, I think they could have gone for an entrapment dismissal and had a reasonable shot at winning that argument. However, discriminatory prosecution appears to be a “slam dunk” in this case. And defense attorneys will always go with whatever tactic they think will maximize the chances of their clients going free.
As well they should.
I do find it mildly amusing that so many folks here essentially agree with Justice Antonin Scalia’s views on legislating personal morality. I am sure he would find the humor in it too.
Draek
I’m not excusing this bastard… Your not getting the point.
To me, I’m looking at what we can learn from this for ourselves. I don’t give a damn about this guy and what he says. We have nothing to learn from HIM.
We need to stop being so permissive of this type of behaviour (the gay sex in parks). I’m glad to say that the trend is on my side. I’m sure if you have been reading the many gay blog sites, you have across the latest talking points about the latest trends in ways of thinking about sex and lifestlye.
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/12/homoquotable-steve-weinstein.html
When the right-winged people ignore their own people making absolutely horrific statements, we too do the same ALL THE TIME. And this is a prime example.
We are basically saying that we don’t care if gays are perverts, branding us all with a bad name. The only thing we can do is learn from this, and publicly state that we will not accept this kind of behaviour.
Thats all i’m saying. I don’t give a damn about homophobes, they are on their way out. What I care about is MORALLY BANKRUPT gay people. That is a huge thorn in my side, and it’s probably what is holding progress back more than anything.
Daez
@ewe: Please explain your personal morality that allows you to believe it is personally acceptable to get fucked in a public park. The way you address this issue makes you look like you do it all the time after all.
Men, most of whom are probably married, cruise public parks because they want to get their rocks off without admitting, even to themselves, that they are gay.
You seem to be a walking contradiction, any other time you would be demanding these “sel hating homosexuals” come out of the closet. I’m not sure what can be more self hating than getting fucked in the bushes by someone you do not even know the name of or desire to ever see again.
Draek
Amen, Daez. I agree that anyone who defends the gays who screw in parks most likely do this themselves or something equivalent.
And the key words here are “Personal” Morality and “Public” Parks.
You cannot express your personal morality in a public park.
Plain and simple.
If you are the kind of person who has anonymous sex with different partners everyday and treats their bodies like a 7-11, then do it in your PRIVATE place, you cannot exercise this in a PUBLIC park.
People who do this are playing russian roulette with their health and lives.
Daez
@DR: Which, they will have a hard time proving, unless they can prove that these crimes often happen between straight couples but are often ignored. I’m not sure you can win an argument where part of your claim is that there is an epidemic of straights fucking in parks. Yes, this was targeted at gays, because gays are the ones committing the crime.
It’s like white neo-Nazi skin heads arguing they should not be targeted for torching a synagogue because no Jews have been charged for torching synagogues.
Daez
@ewe: Are you even remotely trying to make the claim that the parks should belong to you and your I’ll after dark? Not like the tax payees didn’t fund them or anything.
You think kids don’t discover things with their parents in tow. God girl, you really need to end this “all straight people are the devil and all gay people are saints” belief you got going on. It’s not helping you, it’s not helping the community, and it isn’t getting anyone anywhere.
randy
I happen to like sex in the park. Long after dark. Long after little Suzie and little Chad have gone home to bed. When the only people in the park are wandering around looking for a hot sexy casual anonymous romp in the hay. It is thrilling.
To portray it as something that occurs in broad daylight in front of people eating their lunch is ludicrous! And the outright disgust and horror some of you display I find disingenious. It’s hardly a moral issue or even a legal one as far as I’m concerned.
Draek
randy thats disgusting. I hope you get arrested you sick perv.
you are morally bankrupt.
randy
@Draek: Clutch your pearls dear, and run off to a GOProud meeting.
reason
Cops do stings on straight people all the time, seen them on cop shows pretty often. Sometimes they send out undercover male officers sometimes they are undercover female officers. They also do stings on people who solicit young girls and boys. If they didn’t do stings on GBLT in parks it would be discriminatory. The cop shouldn’t have said what he said but I can assure you that many cops say terrible things about the people that they are arresting.
Here is a link about bust, which probably take place every week around the country:
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/04/6-arrested-for-soliciting-sex-to-undercover-cop-in-aurora.html
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/06/2502696/johnson-county-prostitution-sting.html
Daez
@randy: Dude, you give other gay people a bad name. If that is alright with you then so be it, but don’t ask us to condone it and insult us when we don’t.
With all the gay owned establishments that exist simply for cruising and fucking (gay baths, Flex, back rooms of gay bars, “viewing rooms” at adult video stores, campgrounds and more) the only reason you do not bring your urges there is because you are either to cheap, to lazy, or hate yourself to much.
randy
@Daez: Spare me your indignation. And for god’s sake, learn how to spell the English language.
PatrickB
@Daez: Homophobes would hate us even if we were teetotal-ling , church-going, Republicans… they don’t hate us because what we do, they hate us for who we are.
Also, the straight arrest examples cite prostitution, and not consensual, non-monetary sex between adults. Don’t the police have better things to do than harass harmless guys?!
Daez
@randy: When you have to insult my spelling on-line it kind of confirms you have no rebuttal.
@PatrickB: You fail to see that this has very little to do with homophobia. It has to do with public indecency, and I think where your logic fails most is that these people are the ones used by fear mongers for a reason. Most moderates really do not give a flip what someone does in there own bedroom, but convince them that this is done in public and they start to take notice.
ForeverGay
Deaz, you are belligerent. Half the comments are from you harrassing commenters.
Reason, you have nothing. All those heterosexuals were invovled in prostitution meaning it was systematic and regular. Another thing is they were charged with misdemeanors not felonies and not registered as sex offenders. None of the gay men caught in sex stings exchange money and public sex is a rare thing for them.
Markie-Mark
@Daez: No, YOU give other gay people a bad name. Who do you think you are that you can impose your idea of morals on everyone else? You are nobody. And you don’t have right to establish moral standards.
Markie-Mark
@Daez: Really; learn how to spell!
PatrickB
@Daez: If a ‘moderate,’ whatever that is, was actually willing to support gay folk, he wouldn’t be tarring us with a few people (park sexers) he doesn’t like.
You’d have to be naive to believe someone who said, “I’d support the gays if only they’d stop having sex in the parks.”
Moreover, public indecency is selectively enforced! That’s institutional homophobia.
Jaroslaw
Reason #60 soliciting boys and girls is pedophlia, these are not consenting adults. I said earlier even people who have sex in the park are discreet.
DRAEK – I’m still waiting for you to answer me #51 about the police chief lying.
dvd
@Draek:
I’m no fan of public cruising areas either, but you sound like you’re projecting. It’s always the Larry Craig types who protest too much, who are the first to get arrested toe-tapping in the mensroom. Something tells me you’re one of those types, and your self-loathing is projected onto others.
Daez
@Markie-Mark: I don’t give gay people a bad name because I have actual morals and standards. You do when you make the assumption that every gay person has none. I never claimed to be anyone special, but seems I irritated you anyways, which means you saw me as special enough to get to you. How sweet. Do me a favor, when you go cruising the parks tonight please wear a condom because no one that uses condoms ever gets an STI after all.
CJ Maciejeski
@ForeverGay: And maybe gay men SHOULD GET A FUCKING ROOM. Just because it’s gay sex doesn’excuse it from being SEX IN PUBLIC. Thosemen ALL knew they were risking a sex offender wrap, but they did it anyway. Stingorno sting, if their dicks weren’t out (and in and out) in public, they wouldn’t be in a position (HA!) to get charged with public lewdness.
Why the hell does anybody think it’s just okay to screw in public? It’s not. It’s illegal. And for WAY better reasons than just homophobia.
Daez
@CJ Maciejeski: Hey now, don’t come bringing your morales and values to QT. Do you not understand that doing so gives gays everywhere a bad name. Showing any sign of self respect or self worth is forbidden here.
Maxx E Padd
Ah, another minority (person) group demeaning another minority group. Sorry but wouldn’t any other minority group (women, black, disabled, ect) be expecting more than an apology?
CJ Maciejeski
@John (CA): Well, the targeting of gays i think is more a bi-product of the fact that straight people don’t have this ridiculous cultural obsession with public park sex. The sting was about drug use and public sex. Just because the junkies and whores happened to be all male does not mean they were targeted for being gay. They were targeted for doing drugs and having sex in a public space. If there weren’t known cruising parks, there wouldn’t be a place to setup a sting.
Crimeny, how they hell can you people be justifying this?
The reason straight people don’t get prosecuted for public park sex is because they stop doing it when they aren’t hiding from their parents up on Lovers’ Lane, and when the cops catch them doing THAT just put a little fear of god into billy and junie McBackseat and send them on home.
Whereupon they learn that public sex is RISKY and can lead to JAIL.
This isn’t exactly neuroscience, here.
CJ Maciejeski
@ForeverGay: And maybe gay men SHOULD GET A FUCKING ROOM. Just because it’s gay sex doesn’excuse it from being SEX IN PUBLIC. Thosemen ALL knew they were risking a sex offender wrap, but they did it anyway. Stingorno sting, if their dicks weren’t out (and in and out) in public, they wouldn’t be in a position (HA!) to get charged with public lewdness.
Why the hell does anybody think it’s just okay to screw in public? It’s not. It’s illegal. And for WAY better reasons than just homophobia.
@ewe:
“Do the police send scantily clad girly girls into the park flashing her tits and ass while bending over to frame straight boys???”
Yes. They do. It’s called an undercover prostitution sting. Happens ALL the time. You are blinded by your martyrdom. These men would not be facing prosecution if they were not in A PUBLIC PLACE SOLICITING SEX. Just like the johns that get busted rolling up and offering an undercover female officer fifty bucks for a blowjob. If you walk up to a person and offer to have sex in public with them,you are intending to break public decency laws. You either know you are in breach of sex laws, or you are completely stupid.
The tits and ass don’t go to the park because THE DICK AND ASS already claims that turf. Tits and ass got the corner by the warehouses. Your argument is so obtuse it’s a line…a line of bullshit.
No pity. No sympathy.
And I am no prude. I just prefer to keep my silk bindings, double penetrations, and pearl necklaces out of parks…where CHILDREN are wont to be. Or fuck, just people that don’t want to witness other people HAVING SEX IN PUBLIC. Hell, i’m not even opposed to OUTDOOR sex…I engage in it quite frequently. But i have the fucking SENSE to do it on PRIVATE PROPERTY.
@randy: No, ya see, because the park, cover of darkness, behind a bush, UNDER-FUCKING-GROUND is PUBLIC property. Yours, mine, susie homemaker’s, EVERYONE’S. We should all have the right not to come upon anyone bumping uglies. Day, night, whatever. You like getting off outside, that’s just bully for you. Do it in your back yard. Buy some property. HELL, go buy some green space, put up a fence, and make it a goddamned outdoor fuck farm (shit, set up a bar and make a profit on selling watered-down, overpriced drinks and condoms at a 150% markup just like the bath houses), but don’t sit here and pretend that because it’s night time the park suddenly isn’t public space, or that people having sex in public isn’t still a material breach of public decency laws.
Shooting children in the face is thrilling too. Suppose we should give gay men a free pass to experience the thrill of murder, rather than “persecute” them? Your argument fails.
@PatrickB: Yeah, they hate us for who we are, so let’s go ahead and give em some specific activities to be angry about, too? Does that about sum up your fallacious argument, there?
As for the cop in this situation, yeah, lying about what he said is shitty. Most cops are kinda shitty in situations like this. But his shittiness does not excuse illegal (that is a specific use of a word, btw. I could give a shit about the morality/lack thereof in this situation) activity on the part of the defendants. If there was nobody having sex in the park when the cops rolled up, there would not have been an opportunity for him to correctly label people he WITNESSED SUCKING COCK.
And if you people think that sex was the only thing happening there, you are both naive and ignorant.
ForeverGay
@CJ Maciejeski: You are wrong. I’m done responding to you and Deaz because you two are delusional and ignorant. The fact is heterosexual either are not charge or only given misdemeanors for public sex which they systematically do while gay men are charged with felonies meant to ruin their lives and registered as sex offenders.
Daez
@ForeverGay: You still fail to see that the criminal is not the victim. Unless you plan on having sex in a public park sometime soon, you have nothing to worry about, and those that have sex in public parks know the risks before they start groping other people’s crotches in public. They can not claim victim status if they knew the law and the risks and refused to ignore them. You can refuse to respond all you want, it does not make what we said any less true.
John (CA)
@CJ Maciejeski: I have not justified anything. I don’t care about the moral arguments because they are irrelevant. As I said above, I cannot fathom why anyone would want to have sex in a public park. And there are plenty of perfectly rational, non-religious reasons for keeping it out of the parks (public health, ensuring community safety, etc)
But the police cannot target gays for the same reasons airport security cannot target Arabs. Law enforcement officers serve at the pleasure of the civilian leadership. If the elected government in this state has deemed discriminatory prosecution to be against public policy, then the police must observe such restrictions upon their power. And they must do so even if it means fewer arrests and hampers their long-term crime suppression efforts.
If you are a Californian and have a problem with that, go talk to the lawmakers who made the policy.
If you are an out-of-state meddler, then you can continue to feign outrage from afar and go into a fit of rage.
Makes no difference to me.
reason
@ForeverGay: I am confused here? how would you know how frequently the particular individuals engage in public sex acts? From what I understand a person involved in public lewdness is generally fined or charged with a misdemeanor http://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/Public-Lewdness.htm maybe I am missing something but the penalties seem similar to that of public solicitation of sex. They are both sex crimes, and I think sex in public is much worse. It is just as bad as prostitution, but they are engaging in it where someone may run up on them. If straight were caught in the sting I would imagine they would face the same penalty. I couldn’t imagine people having sex in the woods near my house straight GBLT or otherwise, so I sympathizes with citizens that don’t want that crap in their backyards. The same holds true for prostitutes. If unscrupulous sex is so important for certain individuals in this community why doesn’t someone start a dating hotel where people can meet others and rent a room or something like that? That way they can do their thing without burdening the public. Why in public???
I understand that some jurisdictions may treat GBLT offenders worse, but my message to them is just don’t do it and you wont have to worry. It is the way of the world, people have cried day and night about racial profiling and it still happens.
reason
@John (CA): Where is the proof that gays were being targeted?
randy
Lordy, all this piety and sanctimony is nauseating. If you don’t want to have sex in a park then don’t do it. Believe me, there are plenty of guys who do. And they are not all self-loathing closeted men. Some guys just get off on the secrecy and the public nature of it. It goes on all over the world in every city I’ve ever travelled to. It’s a rush. I’m not advocating having sex in Macy’s window for god’s sake.
Aaron
What on earth is everyone mad about? He called them cocksuckers. They ARE cocksuckers…and having sex in public is ILLEGAL. The problem here isn’t his “offensive” remarks, the problem is that gay people think it’s okay to break the law just because we’re “persecuted”. Well, these guys are not being persecuted, they’re being PROSECUTED because they’re having sex in public places, as well as doing drugs and apparently engaging in prostitution. When are WE going to own up to our own stupid behavior and realize that it isn’t just some heterosexuals that are making us look bad it’s US making US look bad. QUIT HAVING SEX IN PUBLIC PARKS YOU COCKSUCKERS!!!
reason
@randy: When I am in a park jogging or exploring through the woods I don’t want to have to run up on that, it is disgusting and disrespectful. Kids also roam through the woods. If they want to have sex in the woods they can buy a couple of acres of land with trees and do it on there. I could care less who it is or what their status is regarding self loathing, closeted or whatever; none of that matters, what matters is no one wants to see that kind of filth.
RomanHans
Draek, I’m sorry, but you have a problem. Straight people do ridiculous things all the time — Google “men exposing themselves on the subway” — but cops don’t arrest them screaming “vagina fuckers!” Small segments of every community suck, but nobody’s got a right to tar the whole group.
randy
@reason: One has to use discretion as to the when and the where. I said I don’t advocate for doing anything in the middle of the day, but a nice encounter in an extremely discrete location is quite nice. That’s not to say you screw somebody on the Great Lawn during a concert. But at 1 a.m., it’s another story!
Silent J
To Draek and the rest of you who are like you, you are all a bunch of self-loathing faggots. I can’t believe we are persecuting ourselves instead of calling that biggot police chief what he really is. . . a self-loathing faggot like you and your kind are.
The man should be fired, period.
John (CA)
@reason: The city manager’s report to the council can be viewed here:
http://www.mydesert.com/assets/pdf/J11683711228.PDF
Because there are legal proceedings pending, the city manager notes that he cannot go into any of the specific details. However, he does say that the use of male undercover decoys is a cause for concern because the same result was achievable using surveillance only. Had the police simply done that, these discrimination allegations could have been more easily dealt with and dismissed. There have also been unspecified disciplinary actions initiated against some of the officers involved. And the city’s remedy – more LGBT sensitivity training and oversight – would appear to be entirely out of place if gays weren’t actually targeted in this operation.
These measures are designed to protect the city from lawsuits. And they are unusually conciliatory. If they are convinced their police department did nothing wrong, why would they go to the trouble of all that?
Ealan75
@RomanHans:
“Google “men exposing themselves on the subway” — but cops don’t arrest them screaming “vagina fuckers!”
Um, I can’t speak on the whole “vagina fuckers” thing, but yeah, the cops totally arrest them-for indecent exposure. Now there may be cases where the pervs run to avoid arrest, but that’s not the same as the police looking the other way.
And it doesn’t really matter. When I take my nephew to the park, I don’t want him stumbling on used condoms, or guys screwing in the bushes or the bathrooms. STOP HAVING SEX IN PUBLIC!! There’s just too many alternative available to the horniest among us, for this to still be an issue. And if you do it, then don’t come crying victim when you’re caught and prosecuted, because you had it coming.
B
In No 52, Daez wrote, “Those straight people are making out. There is a far cry from making out to going down on someone in the middle of the shopping mall. Once penises get groped and clothes start to come off the straight couple is getting asked to leave. Trust me, I’ve kissed enough men in public to know that simply kissing isn’t going to get you jailed for life.”
And you don’t see the double standard in what you said? Two men kiss and at least they don’t have to worry about jail for life. Two straight people kissing are ignored. If they are straight and start ripping off each others’ clothes, they are “asked to leave”, not “thrown in jail”.
And that is the issue – equal treatment under the law. If you don’t insist on that, you’ll have “moral” problems that make two guys screwing in a public park a triviality in comparison. You know, like what happened in Germany in the 1930s (as an example of just how bad it can get).
CJ Maciejeski
@ForeverGay: Man, we need the wood. It’s effin COLD. Get off the cross. Just because QUEERTY doesn’t post poorly-written articles about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Furthermore, I’m sure there is a fair bit of jurisdictional difference on what constitutes a felony or misdemeanor.
For example, I found out the hard way that Florida is WAY THE HELL MORE SERIOUS about minute amounts of weed than Texas, once.
Again, IF PEOPLE WERE NOT FUCKING IN PARKS, they wouldn’t have to face ANY charges. Unevenly enforced or otherwise. You are defending an indefensible position by criticizing the implementation. The fact that the chief of police or the entire fucking organization may or may not be homophobic is completely immaterial to the fact that those people in question CHOSE TO BREAK THE LAW. If they were smart, they would know they are gay, and gay people are often persecuted, and they should probably keep their gay sex at home for simple SAFETY reasons, nevermind “unequally enforced” sex offender laws.
Because a homicidal homophobe cruising the cruise spot with a baseball bat ain’t accountable to NOBODY
If the lawyers can’t either plead down or have the charges outright dismissed, especially in this age of virulent media exposure, they probably kinda deserve the verdict they get. This isn’t even about having morals, or class, or even consideration for others.
It’s about THINKING with something other than one’s DICK.
@John (CA): Show me proof they were “targeting gays” and not responding to a legitimate complaint. They were targeting public sex and drug use. Again, they arrested a bunch of gays because it was a gay cruise spot. The breeders wouldn’t be welcome there anyway, and were thus (surprise!) not there. The simple fact of the matter is that GAY MEN have a cultural adherence to this tradition of cruising and straight people do not. There has never been a time when heterosexual conduct was illegal and thus had to happen under bushes and behind seedy bars, and it sucks that at one point men who fancy men had no other option, but those days are gone. MAYBE gay men should let the fucking tradition die, too.
The FACT here is that you ASSUME unequal enforcement, but i contend there is unequal BREACH of the law on the part of trashy, classless men who have no regard for anything but the THRILL of gratifying their own penises.
Which makes them little more than penile life-support systems and worthy of the disrespect that you are so upset at them having received.
At the end of the day, they were, in fact cocksuckers. Cocksuckers who don’t have the decency to fellate in private.
@randy: Hey, I’ve fucked in parks before. It wasn’t that long ago I was 17 and living with my mom. Hell, I once fucked on a bench in front of a church of christ student center. But i knew, while doing it, that if i got caught i would face indecency charges. Yeah it was hot, thrilling as hell, but still illegal. I knew that at the time. I’m not claiming some moral superiority, here. I’m saying whining about catching consequences for engaging in illegal activity is asinine.
And making it about an accurate description of the offenders on the part of the arresting officer is even more idiotic.
On a personal note, Randy dear, I am SO GLAD I don’t have to go jogging in your neighbourhood.
B
In No 52, Daez commented, “Those straight people are making out. There is a far cry from making out to going down on someone in the middle of the shopping mall. Once penises get groped and clothes start to come off the straight couple is getting asked to leave. Trust me, I’ve kissed enough men in public to know that simply kissing isn’t going to get you jailed for life.”
And you don’t see the double standard in what you said? Two men kiss and at least they don’t have to worry about jail for life. Two straight people kissing are ignored. If they are straight and start ripping off each others’ clothes, they are “asked to leave”, not “thrown in jail”.
And that is the issue – equal treatment under the law. If you don’t insist on that, you’ll have “moral” problems that make two guys screwing in a public park a triviality in comparison. You know, like what happened in Germany in the 1930s (as an example of just how bad it can get).
ewe
@Draek: no they are gay men who are being targeted. They are arrested. there is no sex in the park in these incidents which is what you said.
ewe
@Daez: you are the one who claims through your words and your thoughts about yourself that you are somehow like heterosexuals. You aren’t. You are gay honey. That is nothing like being straight. I personally relish that. YOU DON’T. You are waiting for approval of straight people by saying “look at me, look at me, i’m just like you.” You’re NOT. And i am talking about most of the comments you make on other topics when i state that thought to you. You haven’t figured that out yet. All you talk about is how your dad loves you, loves your partner and your niece and your nephew being able to do whatever they want (in the daytime) in the park bushes. You are never going to pull it off. You are wasting time. You are not like straight people so fucking cut it out. It’s annoying. Your family and friends are not indicative of society. They love you because of how you represent them. Not because of their acceptance for all gay people. “oh look how openminded i am,” straight people think to themselves. Do gay people go around saying “today i am going to accept you for being straight, you should be so grateful and look at me look at me, i am so openminded.” Open your eyes. there is oppression and discrimination against gay people everyday everywhere and probably from your own daddy toward some gay person he doesn’t fucking know. And while you waste your time tryin to be straight actin, you have become the culprit that does the same thing as those who sit in ignorant grandiosity. when undercover fucking twat, tits and ass hit the park scouring for straight boys and arresting them occurs then you can start with your self righteous bullshit.
ewe
@randy: oh moi gawd. are those two boys doin what i think they are doin? ahahahahahahah. Someone cawl 911. Where will Fido shit now?
CJ Maciejeski
@ewe: Man, you are some kind of bitter, girl. Who gay bashed you?
ewe
@CJ Maciejeski: Someone answer the question. Where is all the undercover tits and ass comin out of the Palm Springs police dept?
CJ Maciejeski
@ewe: Why would the undercover female sting operatives go to the park? Clearly that is the wrong place to look for straight men lookin for cooze.
j
@randy: “clutch your pearls, dear” An absolute classic. Well done. (no sarcasm intended, that was brilliant)
CJ Maciejeski
@ewe: oh moi gawd. are those two boys doin what i think they are doin? ahahahahahahah. Someone cawl 911. Where will Fido shit now?
1. What if you looked out your window and saw to heterosexuals copulating?
2. Again, if you think sex was the only thing happening in that park, dollars to doughnuts you are WRONG.
kodienyc
My first comments have to do more with the responses to the story than to the story itself.
It’s shocking to see, even in Southern California, so many reactionaries among gay and lesbian persons. Lack of education and constant bombardment with reactionary propaganda and ideas have formed the mindset of many persons who now somehow think that there is something wrong with public sex, or with looking for sex in a public park. With so many gay and lesbian persons having turned against themselves, it’s no wonder that the War on Gay and Lesbian People becomes more virulent every day.
Regarding the actual story, I’d suggest that the city council of Palm Springs in its entirety be forced to resign over this, and further that a declaration be drawn up that states that all city parks are for the use of gay and lesbian people, and that known heterosexuals must have a pass to enter them, a pass which would be granted by a committee of gay and lesbian citizens at their discretion.
Danny
Obviously members of the gay/straight community should start a nonprofit to buy land – making it private property – to have outdoor sex. That way it’d be legal, away from prying eyes, and just have plots of land across the USA for gay and straight couples to enjoy themselves. People certainly are prudish about sex considering nearly every adult does it and every adult in existence is the result of it. Do some introspection about why you are prudish, if you are. If people got upset about violence in the USA as much as they do sex, there wouldn’t be thousands of people murdered each month in the USA or killed by drunk drivers. Get some real priorities.
ewe
@CJ Maciejeski: Why would the undercover female sting operatives go to the park? Clearly that is the wrong place to look for straight men lookin for cooze.
Read more: http://www.queerty.com/palm-springs-police-chief-david-dominguez-sorry-for-calling-gays-cocksuckers-20101228/#ixzz19ZWF5y58
why you ask? Because that would be your taxdollars at work.
Why not? Because that would be framing straight guys who wanna fuck. There are plenty of straight guys in parks. As an earlier commenter posted, there is documented evidence that those caught in the park looking for head are closet heterosexual men. Stop excusing open discrimination with your
‘straight guys don’t have public sex, oh my” attitude.
ewe
@kodienyc: that is a good idea cause straight people don’t need the parks. I saw a couple in the street between two cars fucking recently. Him with his pants down around his ankles and her with her dress hiked up over her back bent over a car trunk. Please send your request certified mail. thanks.
ewe
@Danny: obviously the palm springs police dept. should have female undercover detectives flahsing their tits and ass to see how many straight people they can arrest. then the outcry would end all sting operations the day after. Count on it. As i said earlier, there would be a line full of guys not only waiting to fuck but feeling absolutely entitled. so step aside prudes. double standards are alive and well i see cause there are no stories of tits and ass in the parks framing straight guys hence; case closed.
ewe
oh, and all you motherfuckers aint allowed to get married either. But keep on keepin on cause someone is “evolving.”
Jaroslaw
#102 you start off really good and then you go loopy. I’m referring to your idea that Gays & Lesbians own all parks and straights should get a pass to use them? Well first I thought you meant all parks in the USA, but re-reading I see you meant Palm Springs Parks (presumably you suggest this solution since PS is 65% Gay)? Even if your idea were legally possible, it would hardly be fair to the 35% that are NOT Gay. And looking for sex is far different than having (public) sex. And you assume that all 65% of Gay/Lesbian don’t mind public sex, which I would be mildy offended by for one. Very discreet sex in the park, in the dark after midnight or something, alright. I’m not goinhg to go out looking to observe. Neither will I be traumatized for life if I do glimpse something, but I do think the parks belong to all and sex should primarily be a private matter.
Joseph
I am a resident of Palm Springs. Less than a mile from the site of this entrapment is a city parking garage behind a popular straight bar called The Village Pub. This parking garage is known a the place where heterosexuals who meet at the pub can go and have sex. Walk through the garage at 1 or 2 am on a Friday or Saturday night and there is all kinds of hetero sex going on in public. Dominguez does NOTHING about it. He is well-known in the Palm Springs Gay Community, about half the town, as a homophobe who encourages his department to also be homophobes. The department is a local embarrassment and he needs to go.
DR
@Daez:
The problem with your rebuttal, from a legal standpoint, is that the police admitted that they’ve never done a sting for straight folks having public sex in the park. And they admitted they had no reason not to. The motion to dismiss is actually a pretty good one, IMO. Looks pretty easy to prove, actually, especially when the police admit it on the stand under cross-examination. That’s never a good thing.
@reason:
Agreed. It’s really sad when my running club hits the local park and I see so many older guys congregating in specific places; I know they’re cruising, and it really irritates me. It’s a quality of life issue which needs to be addressed. I’m with you, when I’m out for a run, I’m not interested in being propositioned by some perv in the bathroom.
Markie-Mark
Heterosexuals have sex in public all the time. They quaintly call it: Lovers’ Lane, or Mile High Club.
justiceontherocks
Curious – is this guy elected or appointed? If he’s appointed who did it?
robert in NYC
Interesting and revealing how straights such as Dominguez would NEVER call straight women who fellate their boyfriends or husbands “cocksuckers” or any other derogatory name. I doubt if a straight couple caught doing that would elicit the same slur from people like Dominguez. Of course its homophobia. Liars always deny what they say. This bastard changed his tone when he was obviously heard spewing this stuff by more than one witness. Anyone who thinks its not homophobia is in denial.
Jaroslaw
excellent point Markie Mark on 111
Jaroslaw
#113 Robert NYC -I don’t know how you can compare a woman fellating her husband (presumably at home) to guys having anonymous sex in the park. She is not committing a criminal act. And since it is unclear to you, don’t go down the garden path of saying it is unfair to prosecute Gays in the park and not straights in the park. I already agree that is unfair. I want you to clarify your assertion.
Jimmy
Part of growing up is ceasing to blame others for your indecent, anti-social behavior. The police targeted an area, not people. If you are in that area having public sex, either with someone of the same sex, opposite, sex, other mammals – whatever, you are breaking the law.
Suppose there were some serial killer targeting gay men who have sex in the woods. After a couple guys are found with their throats slit, people like ForeverGay would expect the police to patrol the woods to keep it safe for illicit cocksuckers. That’s how fucked up their world view is.
robert in NYC
No. 115 Jaroslaw, obviously you didn’t read my statement correctly. I stated…”I doubt if a straight couple caught doing that would elicit the same slur from people like Dominguez”. That I used the word “caught”, implies they would be doing it outside their home. Of course it wouldn’t be wrong if it were in the privacy of their own home, neither would it be for gays either. Believe me, when I was in college during the 60s, you’d see a a bit of straight fellating going on at drive-in movies. Nobody that I know of was arrested for that and nobody was harrassed.
Read more: http://www.queerty.com/palm-springs-police-chief-david-dominguez-sorry-for-calling-gays-cocksuckers-20101228/#ixzz19cQwanec
ewe
@Joseph: Bless your soul. You offer the evidence that is well known but most of these idiotic comments are too stuck on gay sensibility to realize that the double standard is oppressive discrimination. Not to mention the police using your own fucking money to target you but not straight people. thank you again for your account of truth telling right in the backyard of the palm springs po po.
ewe
@Jaroslaw: It is not about you agreeing about anything. This is about the police using tax dollar resources to target gay men and not straight men. Get it? What don’t you understand about that? You are as bad as someone on a corner with a bible and a cup.
CJ Maciejeski
@ewe: I’m not a moron who doesn’t think that straight guys have sex in public. I’m a realist who knows that straight guys don’t have sex in the warm sands park. BECAUSE IT IS A GAY CRUISE SPOT. Paying women to cruise in a known male-male sex spot is a waste of my taxes. I agree that people paid to do these things should be very heavily trained in dealing with queer public, but in the end, if these guys weren’t amenable to having sex–with men–in public, there would be no risk of “entrapment.”
And whatever the fuck these(married, “streaight”) pervs call themselves, when they are getting cornholed in the park, in that moment, they are gay as buttsex.
I mean, if we can’t control our urges enough to find an appropriate place to release our perfectly natural hormonal responses, then why not just abandon the internets and take back to the trees? Aren’t we supposed to be evolved a little beyond humping in bushes like baboons?
robert in NYC
No. 120, where I live in NYC, straight guys DO have sex in a secluded parking lot attached to a place called Cunningham Park in Queens, NYC. I’ve driven by the lot in the early hours and you can see quite a number of straight couples going at it. Its sometimes called “lovers’ lane” in the neighborhood. I’ve also seen patrol cars driving slowly by and I’ve never seen one go in there and tell them to move on, let alone harrass or arrest them. Plus, I’ve seen straight couples screwing in the sand dunes on Jones Beach on Long Island, no arrests either while state police fly over in helicopters as if they can’t see what’s going on. So you’re argument is flawed. If that were a known gay haunt where I happened to be, they would have sent the cops in immediately. Its nothing more than bias against one group of people, “us”. I don’t condone it, straight or gay, but lets have some fairness, why target only one group and not the others? We pay taxes just like they do and enjoy fewer rights than they do, taxation without full representation. We once had a straight swingers club in Manhattan during the 70s, called “Plato’s Retreat”. It was rarely ever raided unlike some of the gay venues where there was far less going on.
Jaroslaw
Ewe give it a rest. You really have a hard time thinking logically sometimes and making comparisons. IF anyone else here thinks I’m as bad as someone on a corner with a Bible and a cup, please let me know. I hardly think a right wing Christian fundy would ever say, as I did, on comment #108 that sex in the park if discreet really wouldn’t bother me that much. I said in comment #115 prosecuting Gay public sex and not prosecuting hetero sex is unfair. I’m not going through each comment because you just want to explode and be nasty to someone, me at the moment. And even if we don’t agree, each of us is entitled to an opinion. Try to explain WHY you think I’m wrong instead of just hurling insults okay? That is what a discussion or debate consists of.
Jaroslaw
Robert #117 – I know what you mean, he probably wouldn’t have made that remark about any straight sex, but I can’t believe you don’t think there is a difference between cornholing a total stranger and blowing your husband? “Playswell” is hardly a prude and he suggested people can hook up anytime they want with the internet and not have to worry about being arrested in the park. Your thoughts? And man, did I must live in the wrong neighborhood. I never see all this sex at the drive in or in the park or whatever. Blow jobs in the 60’s Robert? I thought nice girls didn’t do such things in that era? And not that I really doubt you, but just to play the devil’s advocate, how much could you see in the dark? I would imagine the car itself would hide most of that, no?
***** Well, before I could post this, you typed 121 – again, I never see any of this! Let me just ask this – are the straights having sex or cruising for strangers? Maybe that is a distinction that is irrelevant, public sex is public sex, but I do think the majority of heteros would make a distinction if it was your boyfriend/girlfriend/fiancee. It probably shouldn’t but we have to deal with the world as it is and yet stil work for change.
And does anyone here care about AIDS and other STD? Unless I’m misinformed again, Heteros just do not have the problem with Aids we do, at least in the USA. No one has mentioned it – I would think sex with a total stranger would be risky. Even with a condom. Anyone?
Jaroslaw
#120 CJ Maciejeski – Evolved? That is a relative term. Sex is very animalistic and that is why it “scares” people and why we do it in private. Mostly.
I recall reading there was an ancient Greek society where you could jack off at will wherever, whenever and you could have Gay or straight sex right in the street if you chose to do so. Obviously this didn’t catch on, but even theoretically, it is an option. Who said sex is dirty or should be done in private? That is something we collectively as a society decided and each of us buy into. Even Ann Landers years ago (on a completely different subject of course) said NO ONE CAN EMBARRASS YOU WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT. Think about what this means. I recall reading a story during the depression where women made their own underwear, and they reused buttons because they didn’t have money for elastic. One particular woman’s button broke at the dance and her panties fell down at her ankles. She casually picked them up, put them in her purse and calmly proceeded to leave the dance presumably to go home and make repairs. But she did not go ballistic per the story teller. See, she did not ALLOW herself to be embarrassed by others. Isn’t there some of that same collective thinking about sex in the park? Who does it really hurt? Do you think children are better off knowing about sex or watching people get bombed, murdered, raped etc. daily on TV?
robert in NYC
No. 123, Jaroslaw, cornholing a total stranger is no different than a straight guy screwing his girlfriend or wife in a public place such as the sand dunes or in a car in a secluded parking lot. What if a straight guy had met a hooker there for the sake of argument, she got into his car and he screwed her? I see no difference. Personally, I don’t advocate public sex anywhere, no matter the gender of the couple or persons involved, its not my cup of tea. Those who do, do so at their own risk, but again, the police should go after the straight female street walkers and their solicitors sitting in their cars in just as an aggressive manner as they do gay cruising areas. The field needs to be leveled and the same treatment applied to both orientations.
Drive-ins where I am are no longer in existence. During the 60s, those nice girls you speak of weren’t as widespread as you may think. The 60s was a very permissive era where anything could happen, women bearing their breasts at rock concerts and the like. I was also at the Woodstock concert upstate, there were some straight couples paring off to go have sex somewhere, not that the weather was good, in fact it rained quite a bit. Nobody was arrested for that. I saw no gay couples doing it although there might well have been, it was a long time ago to remember exactly what happened. As for the parking lot I described in my neighborhood, there is a street light, two in fact opposite the parking lot so its not totally obscured. I happened to stop and observe several cars. I could clearly see straight couples making out, sometimes a woman’s head would disappear and two cars you could definitely see that they were screwing because both vehicles weren’t exactly static, there was some rhythmic movement quite visible to the eye, obviously both had good shock absorbers. Its not the first time I’ve seen it and again, I’ve seen patrol cars back and forth, nobody was told to move on. They just left them alone. Maybe its indigenous to this particular area and precinct but for some to suggest straights don’t do it, is deeply flawed. I suspect the couples were already involved and even if they weren’t (I didn’t see anyone cruising except for one or two supposedly straight single men in cars there for prurient interest, it doesn’t excuse the fact they were having sex of some description in a public place and weren’t arrested for it. I see no difference between that and someone cruising for sex, straight or gay. Also, I think a gay couple in a relationship wouldn’t necessarily decide to have sex in a public place either, most of us wouldn’t. We too are capable of making a clear distinction as to what constitutes public lewdity is and isn’t. Neither orientation has a monopoly on it.
Regarding STDs, a lot of straights don’t think twice about having unprotected sex because HIV/AIDS is still stigmatized as a “gay disease”. Advances have been made to diminish the stigma, but its still very much alive in straight society, especially where there is ignorance and lack of education. Had HIV first appeared among straights, I don’t think there would have been as much stigma associated with it or warnings about having straight sex in general. Also, I don’t think they would be hearing as much of the venom coming from the religious cults as we hear when its about gay sex, gay rights etc. There’s a definite double-standard in straight society when it comes to straights vs. gays (hypocrisy and bigotry combined), gays overwhelmingly on the receiving end of both and in most cases, for no logical reason.
CJ Maciejeski
@Jaroslaw: i think you mean 103
@Jaroslaw: Oh good lord there is a HUGE difference between an underwear incident and putting your dick in someone. Apples and oranges, man. I’m not suggesting that straight people shouldn’t also be prosecuted for similar acts,and i’m not saying anyone should be ashamed of their sexuality, but me, personally, i wouldn’t want to walk up on two strangers having sex. Or come upon fluids or condoms or needles, nor would i want potential kids to do so. If you can’t draw a line between appropriate public affection and something that is just courtesy to keep out of people’s faces, i just can’t debate this with you, because we obviously have two separate value systems. Unfortunately, mine agrees with the law. If you choose to live within the society, you have to conform to at least a degree of courtesy to fellow people who may not be so free-thinking about sex. Or face prosecution, at the discretion of judges and police and da’s and so forth. WHich you know are there. Pie-in-the-sky idealism is cute, but here on planet earth, there’s a system. And it is naive and downright ignorant to pretend that it shouldn’t apply to these very real violators of the law because of theoretical unprosecuted straight people.
There’s always buying land in the woods and setting yourself up a nudist compound with no rules, if you want, but in the park where taxpayer dollars fund cleanup and landscaping and such? Yeah, keep the genitals covered, please.
As for kids seeing horrors on tv, i think, mostly it is parent’s responsibility to monitor what comes into their homes. However they cannot, apparently, monitor what you do with your dick in the park. The thing is you don’t get to make the choices for other people in how they raise their kids or to what they are exposed. It is also unfair to the people who come to the park to bird watch or nature hike or exercise or whatever. Nevermind potential public health risks. Notice, the original report included drug use. You wanna stumble up on someone’s use needle?
Jaroslaw
Robert THANK you for the prompt thoughtful reply, just except one thing. I did amend my remarks already to say there probably isn’t a distinction between cruising for Gay sex and bf/gf sex but in the mind of much of the public, there probably is and it is not realistic to ignore this.
Woodstock was private property, wasn’t it? That changes the landscape entirely, no pun intended! But I get the point, I already acknowledged several times and new long before this post, the laws and police are discriminatory…….
Yes, HIV is a straight disease in Africa and I totally agree if the same had occurred here, we never would have heard that it was “God’s punishment” for Gay sex. But we Gays in general are much more promiscuous are we not? And thus I would expect more STD’s just because that is how probability works. Again, if I’m incorrect, let me know. I’m not trying to be sex negative or mirror straight society, just for the record.
Jaroslaw
#126 – CJ you’re absolutely right we can’t discuss this. I wasn’t thinking the underwear story was anywhere near parallel to this topic, I was trying to make sure I conveyed an idea as clearly as possible, which you apparently are unable to grasp.
Nowhere did I say I WANT to observe two people having sex in the park, but I did say it is not the end of the world. Other countries are much more sex friendly and anti-violence and their societies are NOT imploding!
Why retreat into “I’m on the side of the law?” without even considering other possibilities? I wasn’t being an advocate for any particular way of life, I was just acknowledging our way is not the ONLY way. Man you got issues, if even thinking about something alternative rattles you that much. Take some security pills already!
It is mindless drivel to say that “it is the parent’s responsbility to monitor TV” CLEARLY we as a society are incapable of frankly addressing issues with sexuality (scary, let’s pretend there is no problem, hide head in sand) vs. violence (acceptable, macho, laudable, money maker for movies etc.). Many of these guys wouldn’t even be in the park at all if we could! (the married frauders and closet)
For heaven’s sake, we are the most prudish society on the planet excluding backwards theocracies and yet we have the highest teen pregnancy rate. Does that mean anything to you? Another example, a teacher was almost fired (story right here) because a movie shown to OLDER high school students contained the word “fuck” and yet only a few years ago, the magazine cover of US News was reporting on out of control rates of teen violence.
We have many problems in our world, and limited resources. Is sex in the park the most pressing priority?
CJ Maciejeski
Of course it isn’t the most pressing, but the debate at hand is not about nuclear proliferation or television violence. You’re changing the topic.
Jaroslaw
#129 Yup, just as I figured, glom onto a minor point and ignore the major ones.
ewe
@Jaroslaw: you hurl insults. Read your bullshit. A “right wing christian fundy” and you are very similar because you do not address the fact that only gay men are being targeted. No matter how many fucking times it is brought up, all you keep harping about is sex in the bushes that does not ever take place because the cops rub their crotches, get a response and then make an arrest. No undercover tits, twats and ass ever are out there in the parks framing straight guys. All you do is push your simple morality ignoring all the outside trimmings that create institutional oppression. So i have no alternative other than to call you a fucking asshole which i have in the past because you are an ignorant cunt when it comes to gay rights.
ewe
oy
Jaroslaw
EWE copy and paste what you are speaking of, include the number of the post that I wrote or shut up.
CJ Maciejeski – Your assertion that I’m changing the topic seemed self evidently incorrect, but if you really think I’m doing that, which I’m not; read the following:
When I mentioned the underwear story, I was trying to illustragte that just because something is deemed embarrassing or inappropriate by our society doesn’t mean that it is. (you’ve stated sex in the park is one of these things which is wrong and against the law) However, anyone can change their perspective and free their mind of the confines of conventional wisdom. This doesn’t mean you MUST adopt alternate ways of thinking, but you can entertain the ideas if only for a while. See if you learn something. Don’t be so sure of yourself. The world at large felt women were inferior for centuries and that didn’t make it so. Why are you so threatened by open sexuality? Just because a particular law is on the books today doesn’t mean it has to be tomorrow. And as almost everyone keeps making crystal clear, police departments everywhere unfairly target Gay sex while simultaneously ignoring straight sex. Did you ever stop to think, which I already mentioned, that a lot of married guys who are really closeted Gay feel trapped in unhappy marriages may be going to these parks? Rest room stings also yield all kinds of people, judges, teachers, etc. who don’t feel comfortable accepting who they are. I can certainly understand why this may be so. Do you deny our society does NOT extoll the virtues of homosexual relationshipss like they do the “wholesome” marriage of man/woman and children? Do you think these attitudes our uptight, rigid anti-gay society just maybe HELPED create the problem you’re so adamantly in favor of fighting?
ewe
@Jaroslaw: there are too numerous posts of yours to paste. I am not doing your homework.
ewe
Palm Springs has a gay community. Imagine what places without any gay influence act like? Case in point: do straight people get arrested for the simple act of kissing? Try kissing an undercover cop and see what happens? I wonder. So why would that be considered obscene for one orientation and not another? State funded discrimination is why and this chiefs own words out of his mouth are evidence of that abuse and corruption.
robert in NYC
No. 127, Jaroslaw, thank you too and you’re quite welcome.
Yes, Woodstock is on private land.
Regarding your statement that gays in geneal are more promiscuous. I would be careful when saying something like that. Its perceived that we are and I’ve no doubt it derives from the fact that so many gays first succumbed to HIV/AIDS. However, I don’t think we can safely say that we are any more promiscuous than straights, as evidenced by the recent teen pregnancy results that are at their lowest in 70 years but still higher than the industrialized world, especially in Europe. Add to that, one in two straight marriages fail either because of adultery (promiscuity in other words) or for financial reasons. There are as many promiscuous single straight males as there are gay, probably more per capita in view of the fact they happen to be the majority, only when straights do it, its just not stigmatized as it is by the bigots and hypocrites on the far right of the GOP including the religious variety who at every opportunity will use it to villify, denigate and dehumanize gay people provocation to advance their agenda to keep us as second class citizens. Witness the recent scandal of Governor Sanford of South Carolina, among others. I didn’t hear one word from the far right denigrating him or his orientation or from his church (and this from a man who espoused the sanctity of marriage), ditto David Vitter, John Edwards and the rest of them. Sanford was not compelled to step down either, neither was Vitter. The divorce rate of course has nothing to do with gays, their right to marry, or their sexual proclivities as many on the right and in the GOP often claim. So no, I can’t subscribe to the idea that we’re more promiscuous than anyone else. Even if that were the case, I’m convinced that had we had same-sex marriage across the country, we might have seen a drop in unprotected sex and multiple partners.
Jaroslaw
#136 – Robert – I’m aware of every point you’ve made. I do read a lot and many different sources and of course I’m aware that writers can be objective or prejudiced, sources can be misleading etc. But straight single guys don’t hide their promiscuity, they consider themselves “lucky” don’t they to get a lot therefore stats would be likely be exaggerated upwards instead of downwards? Women are gatekeepers or used to be, of sexuality since they are the ones who end up pregnant. You don’t have to tell me about unwed pregnancies or broken marriages – that is my job on a daily basis (child support). But the very fact that until recently Gay men have been second class citizens, denied marriage and other social constraints, and are not men in general more full of gusto? It is all reasonable information to conclude my premise that we are more promiscuous. Why wouldn’t we be? There are few incentives to be otherwise. And I don’t mean this from a denigrating, moralistic religiously repressed perspective. We just party harder, and do as we wish. There are no brakes on our behavior. And what I’m going to say next is probably the least likely way to be objective – but when I came out in the early 80s, I was just about the ONLY person I knew that wanted to get “married & settle down.” (straight guys WERE marrying as well as the promiscous thing) Everyone Gay WAS partying, orgying and what have you. I went everywhere, college rap groups, answered ads in the papers and magazines, checked out the bars and discussion groups. Granted it is only my personal experience, but I did meet LOTS & Lots of guys. However, I’m a reasonable person, I also understand what you’re saying about the hidden sexuality – Henry Ford is probably the best example – he had the morality squads policing his employees in the 1910s & 20s while he screwed around! So ultimately we probably don’t know? No research or reading material is valid? Everything that draws any conclusion is suspect? That is hard way to have a discussion!
Jaroslaw
EWE – you’re the one making an claim that I say isn’t true. So belly up to the bar and prove it or shut up. Just a couple copy & pastes will do. (along with post numbers in case you’re playing the “out of context” game)
robert in NYC
Jaroslaw, I didn’t really say that everything that draws any conclusion is suspect. What I am very careful about saying or even assuming is that the majority of gay people party harder and as such might imply that we are more promiscuous. I just can’t say that the majority of us are like that and are worse than straight single men. There is no empirical evidence for that. The majority of gay people I know certainly aren’t. When I was growing up, it was nothing new to hear straight youths brag about the number of girls they’d “scored” with, the terminology used during the 60s. But would I say they were all like that? Of course not. Nobody really knows for sure, so I refrain from making general assumptions about my own people. My gut feeling and life experience would say the majority of us aren’t that way, at least not in my circles of friends and acquaintances. But if you want to buy into the right wing agenda which revels in promoting that myth in order to deny us full equality, then feel free. Its just not my experience. I think the discussion is over on this topic. We will probably not agree but that’s fine too.
Jaroslaw
I have no problem disagreeing, but please don’t say I’m buying into the right wing agenda. I made many observations completely independent of anything they are pushing. My reading list is hardly the 700 Club’s or Republican bookshelf.
For just ONE example – Randy Shilts wrote “And the Band Played On.” He was Gay. There were mountains of facts and figures in that book – I think it was 700 or 800 pages. Did you get any impressions after reading that book? Randy seemed very pro-Gay community – I wouldn’t think he would spread falsehoods.
I did already suggest way previously that we may not ultimately know.
DR
@ewe: “No undercover tits, twats and ass ever are out there in the parks framing straight guys.”
Maybe not in the park, but there are plenty of straight men arrested every year for soliciting female officers going undercover as prostitutes.
It’s easy to play the blame game, like you are so find of doing, but most of your comments won’t hold up under a decent analysis of arrests.
And remember, they’re not being framed if they’re inclined to commit crimes! Like Nancy used to say “just say no”! There are plenty of legal ways to get laid.
Palto
Ya know what, the spic police chief had a point about the cocksucker.
ewe
@DR: bad example. that includes the transfer of funds for criminal activity. Prostitution cannot be compared to this. Exposing discrimination through corrupt and abusive authority is not about me playing the blame game. You can feel free to sit on a broken glass bottle neck and try your shit on someone else though. We are discussing the cops using homophobic language, not your convenient scapegoat.
$0.02
@31, correction, many police officers, chiefs, etc say the word nigger often, get caught and still have their jobs. Where I live, in MN, we have a sheriff of a the largest, mos liberal city repeatedly call blacks niggers. You can go to his office today to see him sitting behind his desk.
Note to all, cops talk like this. You may not like it, it will bother you, it is disgusting and hateful but this is the way they are and so long as they have their little club that everyone seems to give them a pass for they will continue to act like ass holes against gay men and women, brutalize black men, terrorize black women and so on…
ewe
@$0.02: hey, that’s my comment you are referring to. Ok i am well aware that cops use foul vocabulary. So do i but i said that it should not be allowable in a workplace environment. I am objecting to undercover cops going after one gender and not the other more than i am about the chief calling unknown people in his own mind a bunch of cocksuckers. Believe me i have thicker skin than that and so does everyone here on this blog.
harry nelson
There is a long history of “lovers’ lanes” and “make-out” parks where heteros can pretty much do as they please, and the public embraces the tradition in positive ways. My partner and I often encounter straight couples engaged in sex acts in various parks and public areas. We begrudgingly abandon our own plans so the heteros can have the area to themselves.
Then one afternoon two men went to a local park that they thought was empty, but they were soon accosted by a very aggressive single man. He repeatedly confronted them asking for oral sex while he vigorously masturbated himself through his pants. They explained that they weren’t interested, again and again, at least five times. He followed them for about 20 minutes doing this.
Finally he quit talking sex and talked about where he lived and he asked them questions about the history of the park and area landmarks. It was then that the men started to feel sorry for him. They imagined he was one of those desperate married men who don’t get very far from the wife and kids for very long.
He followed them even after they left the park. As they were about to leave the area, while this man looked at them all pouting and pathetic, one man flashed him. The other man wasn’t into it, but didn’t want to look unsympathetic, so he flashed him, too. As soon as the second guy had unzipped his fly, the officer produced a deputy sheriff badge and said they were arrested.
It was like some frat house hazing with a team of bag a fag bullies. They were held for hours in various police vehicles before they took them to the county jail. The charges were dropped, but one man still lost his job as a teacher. It quickly becomes apparent that victims like these can only let the process go forward because any attempt to defend themselves only leads to more publicity.
They were obviously profiled–their car is registered in both their names and they live at the same address. They were then targeted by the eager group of officers who were anxious to maximize their arrests. Should a public official be allowed to make repeated, unwanted sexual advances as a condition of their employment?
In the victims’ opinion, the experience felt like sexual harassment and abuse.
Historically, when the people who own and run this county got upset with blacks and minorities, they’d round up a bunch of random minority people and harass them to show the community that law enforcement was protecting the white folks.
Now my partner and I have cut ties to the ACLU and Lambda Legal because neither seemed the least bit interested. As a matter of fact, I don’t think anyone keeps track of these gay-bashing events. –And to think that homophobes really believe in a “gay agenda”!
My county has a long history of KLAN activity and racist attitudes, which I believe they still exercise against the only “fair game” minority–gay citizens.
Franky
The type of men who generally fit the profile of a cop, at least in my state of VA, are:
Republican/conservative, white, males age 25-50, many with military history, many with a history in sports, most religious, many with a history of violating the law themselves.
Basically, the police force/firefighters/public defenders in general, it’s more or less like a club house of extremely over-macho, often times uneducated males with tons of power. You best believe they are going to use that power for no good, no different than organized religion among other things. The police force attracts bigots, because they can attack the people they are against, and get away with it, because they’re police, and they can do nothing wrong in the eyes of many.
When it comes to public sex and men sexing other men, obviously, this is more of an issue of married/straight/bi/closeted men who want easy sex without the hassles of being “out.” In many cases, if not most, there isn’t any actual sex going on. The police forces in this country know this. They also know that this isn’t a big issue compared to bigger issues they can’t seem to handle. But because they are looking to validate their manhoods, fulfill their required their hours of a month, or just because they hate gay people and know this is an easy way to take advantage of the gay community and create a stigma, they do these unwarranted sex stings.
Minority groups are weak in their eyes, they don’t fear minority groups as a whole, so they feel completely at ease to commit unwarranted crimes against minority citizens. They have the power, and they can just use the “he’s black, you know he’s a robber” or “he’s gay, you know he’s having bathroom sex” excuses. It won’t change until the overall police culture changes, which likely won’t be any time soon.
Franky
Oh, and as for the morality of public sex, personally, I think it’s sort of rude and disgusting, but at the same time, it’s sex. It’s not like we’re talking about murders. This is sex, generally in mostly private areas, most of the time at dark where kids aren’t running around. So, while I don’t necessarily think having sex where anyone could potentially see you is wise or correct, it’s just not an issue that needs to be targeted to the point it is by many police forces, and the only reason it is, is because they are taking advantage of anti-gay biases and stereotypes.
Jaroslaw
Harry Nelson – since criminal proceedings are public records, and I can’t believe any more damage can be done, is there a reason you didn’t cite the names/dates so we can research this ourselves? Possibly write a letter to Lambda Legal or the ACLU? With limited resources these groups have to confine themselves to cases they can win you know!
harry nelson
The charge was dismissed, the records sealed, and it was all expunged. The only thing left is the ruins of a career; distrust, fear and hatred for county law enforcement; and all the internet record from the newspapers. The ACLU was notified, as well as Lambda Legal Defense. I don’t think anyone noted or even asked for the particulars. These arrests happen all the time, as attested to by gay culture’s many accounts of “vice squad cops”, which are legendary. I heard my first story of police entrapping gays over forty years’ ago, but these stories didn’t do these gay men any good when faced with this profiling, targeting and entrapment
by a sheriff bent on arresting as many gays as possible, with no evidence other than a deputy’s word.
Jaroslaw
I’m sorry for what happened, it is terrible, BUT if the case is dismissed, what can the ACLU or Lamda do about it? Certainly any lawyer can sue for pain/suffering and would glady take it for a percentage, like most cases. No cost to the plaintiffs if they don’t win…..
Jaroslaw
Franky great post 150, love the perspective. Despite some of the nastiness here, it is so great to see all the different ideas and angles to the same thing.
Jaroslaw
I do have a question though, when you say “have a history of violating the law themselvesl” where do you get this statistic? We had a HUGE discussion here about Michael Verdugo being fired since he did a Gay “porn” movie when he was 22, which by the way is legal, but the city said he lied on his application about it which he probably did, but there may be some grey there, but he sued and lost…..
So again, where do you get this info and how do they get the job in the first place if presumably there are some restrictions on who can get hired (some misdemeanors and certainly felonies would seem to preclude an applicant dont’ you think?)
Cassandra
Update, scooping Queerty:
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110105/NEWS01/110105024/Palm-Springs-police-chief-retiring-over-Warm-Sands
“Palm Springs police Chief David Dominguez announced Wednesday he plans to retire from the police department.
“After careful consideration of the recent debates surrounding the Warm Sands Law Enforcement Operation, I believe this decision is in the best interest of my family, my health, the Department and the City,” Dominguez said in a statement.”
Jaroslaw
Go Cassandra! Thanks!
Matthew Dark
Well, there’s a lot of thought-provoking things in this article as well as in all the comments. But ultimately it seems that all the senseless arguing and rationalizing is both changing the issues at hand as well as confusing the point. The moral of this whole story, boys and girls, can be summed up in two lines:
1) No one should have sex in public areas
2) Community figureheads should not use slurs and/or lie
so, to suggest a course of action:
1) Arrest/fine all people regardless of orientation who take part in acts of public lewdness
2) Remove untrustworthy/bigoted figureheads from their positions
My, how complicated!
Jaroslaw
Matthew – what are you 12 years old? Of course what you say is a logical course of action, but if you were THINKING about all the thought provoking points in the article and the comments then you know that is NOT going to happen. The very idea that a police chief and his subordinates could say such a thing about a very large constituency is proof positive that your Pollyanna idea won’t work. Oh, he’s sorry only because he got caught, but in his mind Gays are still dirty cocksuckers. Remove untrustworthy or bigoted figureheads? There goes 90% of the Congress, 80% of state legislators and 75% or more of Corporate America. Rock on, Matthew….
Matthew Dark
@Jaroslaw: No way, really?! Could that have been the joke?
Thiago
Maybe they need to invest in a personal injury attorney in Olympia, get some compensation out of this fiasco. Man’s off his rocker, but otherwise(well honestly, even then) he’ll probably get away with it. Sad but true.