There seems to be a growing trend among geriatric gay men that involves committing naughty acts in public parks in the middle of the day.
Earlier this month, three gentlemen in their 70s and 80s were seen engaging in a wild gay sex session while dressed in women’s tennis skirts at a park in Surrey, England. Now, three more men, also in their 70s and 80s, we caught masturbating at a park in Henrico County, Virginia.
James Allan Shelton, aged 70, Roger Page Whitlow, 71, and Rudolph Sherwood Taggart, 84 were arrested and charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure and obscene sexual display this week after they were caught red-handed in a circle jerk (pun intended) during a police sting operation.
The incident took place at Vawter Street Park, which is located at the end of a dead-end road. Police say they have been receiving complaints about sexual activity happening at the park, mainly in the woods, since last September.
“It’s been an older crowd,” Lt. Chris Eley, with Henrico County Police, told WTVR. “I think the youngest has been 55 and the oldest is in their 80s.”
Officials from Vawter Street Park say they hope the recent circle jerk doesn’t deter others from enjoying all the park has to offer, claiming the arrests are “not reflective of the park” and maintaining that it is a “family-friendly place.”
Related stories:
Three Elderly Men Dressed In Tennis Skirts Caught Gay Sexing In Public Park
Man Pleads Guilty To Blackmailing Two Married Men He Hooked Up With In A Park
Glory Hole In College Library Bathroom Sparks Furor On University Campus
Dakotahgeo
This is hilarious! Hopefully the Judge will have a good sense of humor!
Thispurpose
Dear Queerty,
Naming these men in your article is wrong and follows a long history of publicly shaming gay men in media. I think back to all of the bathroom raids in small towns across North America where many men of various backgrounds were outed in the papers only to destroy their families and employment. Several committed suicide. You clearly took this article from another publication and did not do any further investigation to add any gay perspective to this story. Instead of writing this article as scandalous piece why not use it as a starting point to a much larger discussion and problem; senior LGBT folk being forced to return to the closet when entering seniors homes/living. Think of the service we could provide to these people by addressing this issue. Are you prepared to give up how you act, talk and feel because your age and social economic status changes and you are forced to move into a senior’s residence? These are not a bunch of dirty old men committing a horrific and sexually depraved act. These are a group of men who long for the same things that we younger people do; we desire to connect with people on a sexual, emotional and intellectual level. When any of these needs are not being met it is human nature to find ways of making them happen.
Shame on you Queerty for perpetuating the shaming of members of our own community.
Dakotahgeo
@Thispurpose: THANK YOU! Sometimes I wonder why Queerty even exists! But, presumably, they’re human.
lykeitiz
@Thispurpose: (((Thunderous Applause))) !!!
mmichael_24
@Thispurpose: Maybe if these men would have did what they did behind closed doors instead of in a public place they wouldn’t have to worry about it. It’s their own fault.
Giancarlo85
I guess we won’t be hearing from Bob Lablash any time soon…
And I don’t agree with this purpose at all. These men should have done it behind closed doors… Not in a public place at all. This has nothing to do with shaming anyone.
da90027
As long as it didnt get out of hand I’m ok with it….good for them at that age sex can sometimes be like shooting pool with a rope…
Bauhaus
@Giancarlo85:
I think he was busy with ol’ BJ and Jason.
Ron Jackson
If these guys were in their twenties this would not have even made the news. I suppose the “novelty” of grandpa sex makes it newsworthy? /whatever.
DistingueTraces
I agree that naming and picturing them was unethical.
Presumably the photos were already on their local media, but being outed in this way could put an elderly man in a small southern town at risk for violence — quite apart from the question of stigma.
As a supporter of my state park system I find public sex obnoxious (that pretty grove of trees is for everyone to enjoy, guys, not just for you to beat off in), but shaming tactics of this kind are archaic and horrible.
Sansacro
@Giancarlo85: There is an entire history naming gay men (often including entrapment) in various degrees of public sex that doesn’t extend to straight people, who–guess what–also have sex in public (cars, trains, movie theaters, parks, etc). Besides, these are older dudes, from a generation where this was often the only outlet for such sex. Personally, I think people need to chill out.
o.codone
Queerty only named them because of their age, they think it’s some kinda joke cause the guys are old.
Giancarlo85
@Sansacro: Well there are different outlets now. Like a motel room lol.
Charlie in Charge
Oh dear lord… unless these guys are hypocrites who campaign against gay rights WHY are we posting about their after-hours shenanigans?
Scribe38
I’m starting a go-fund-me page for these guys to buy them computers and memberships in gay dating apps. There just isn’t a reason to get caught stroking it in public anymore. Just like older guys explaining Stonewall to the younger gays, time for younger gays to explain grinder to the older generation.
DarSco
WOW! Scribe38 is correct! ” Just like older guys explaining Stonewall to the younger gays, time for younger gays to explain grinder to the older generation.”
just because a person is Elderly does not mean the horniness dies! I’m 40ish and I’m Glad i have MANY MANY more years of hot fun!
hotshot70
first, SHAME on Queerty for naming them. This site is supposed to be friendly to the gay community, but then they turn into blacklisters. Second, it was 3 elderly men. Let them have their fun. It’s not like they are gonna go after young women or men, and even if they tried, all you’d have to do is bump their “I’ve fallen, and can’t get up” button!
mmichael_24
@hotshot70: It really doesn’t matter if queerty used their names or not because this story is on the news where they had already used their full names. So queerty is just repeating what is already out there. And just because these men are elderly doesn’t make it OK that they are performing sexual acts in a park where little kids play. And you don’t know their history for all you know they could be attracted to little boys so since you think that this it is ok for these men to do what they did are you also saying that it would be OK for them to have little kids preform sexual acts with them because in your words “let them have their fun” so if that was part of their fun it would be OK according to you right.
And if these men didn’t want their name South there I’m that’s their own fault they could of easily got a hotel room.
Kev
@ Thispurpose Thank you.
Makota
@mmichael_24:
Maybe they recognize that exactly that kind of dialogue is pushing us back toward closet culture.
“It’s okay to be gay, just not in my back yard.” “It’s okay to be gay, just keep it behind closed doors.” “I don’t care what they do, I just don’t want to have to deal with it.” “I’m fine with them, as long as they are in committed, monogamous relationships that mirror heteronormativity.”
I’ve heard this crap before, and I’m only thirty, so I KNOW that these gentlemen have. What worries me about it, is that now it is being echoed within the community.
I, for one, am tired of being asked to accept the “we’ll tolerate you in as much as you tolerate our intolerance of you” dialogue.
Don’t keep it behind closed doors. Open the doors, pull them off of the hinges, and take it to the streets. Get your groove on, old guys.
Also, everything @Thispurpose: said.
Alan down in Florida
@Thispurpose: Bravo
Saint Law
I love that they were wearing tennis skirts.
charlietex
I call bullshit. If you have to go looking for it then it is NOT public.
Low Country Boy
@Saint Law: Jesus, read the effing article. The guys caught in tennis skirts were in England! This happened in Virginia. I guess Queerty needs to institute a reading comprehension test before anyone can post.
jason smeds
I wouldn’t be surprised if these men are straight-identifying. Straight-identifying men love circle jerks because it binds them together as men. It’s about proving your virility to one another.
Giancarlo85
@jason smeds: Nope. You’re wrong once again.
mmichael_24
@Makota: I’m not saying that they should hide who they are but you shouldn’t being preforming sexual acts in a public park no matter how old you are
vive
@Graham Gremore, shame on you for publishing their pictures.
vive
@charlietex, exactly. If they had to do a “sting” operation to entrap them, it wasn’t public.
gamer
Three men? I’m pretty sure that’s a triangle, not a circle. Meh.. semantics.