I am about to shriek with laughter. Oh crap, now I’m crying with giggles. Nervous twitchers beware! I better run down to the Castro and tell the guys that semaphore is *so* last year’s airport restroom. Snip from ABC News’ Secret Signals: How Gay Men Cruise for Sex:
While many Americans may only be vaguely familiar with the idea of “cruising,” there is a secret world of sex between men that exists in public places across the country.
The police officer who arrested Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis airport for allegedly looking to engage in gay sex wrote in his June report that he “recognized a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct.”
Craig tapped his foot up and down and swiped his hand underneath the bathroom stall in which the undercover cop was sitting, according to the police report.
Those actions led to Craig’s arrest by Detective Dave Karsnia and the senator’s guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge. Craig told reporters today that he did nothing inappropriate and said his guilty plea was a mistake.
Public places like men’s restrooms, in airports and train stations, truck stops, university libraries and parks, have long been places where gay and bisexual men, particularly those in the closet, congregate in order to meet for anonymous sex.
Over time, people familiar with cruising told ABCNEWS.com, gay men began using a codified system of signals to indicate to others that they were interested in sex. In an effort to curb lewd acts in public – or as some gays argue, in an effort to persecute gay men – undercover police began sting operations in places known for sex soliciting and employed the same codes.
Link.
See also: Larry Craig Ruins Hot Public Sex For The Rest Of Us and ya know, I told ya so.
Update: my dear friend Lori Selke tells me, “(…) the actions Larry
Craig is described as taking follow almost *exactly* the procedure described
in Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask. Just
thought you might be amused to know…”.
That book was originally published in 1969! (Most recent printing, 2000.) Oh, and I’m sure you’ve seen it, but don’t miss the ABC Larry Craig ‘gay signals’ reenactment (video by local news team), with a woman carefully placed in the middle as the literal wall of heterosexual reinforcement. Or to fulfill my hot news anchor woman-gloryhole fantasies. Not sure which.
