The Miami Herald, Inc.; Sunday, February 9, 1997
Eugene J. Patron Herald Writer

While the vast majority of gay men in Miami do not have sex in public places, it is common knowledge in the gay community that Flamingo Park is a popular "cruising" area where men meet men late at night and, often enough, have sex. Or, at least, that was the way it used to be before the current campaign to end public sex in the park.

Last January, after police raids on gay nightclubs, gay community members met with city officials to soothe relations. As part of these meetings, a Gay and Lesbian Community Agenda task force was formed. One issue raised by the police: They were getting complaints from people living in the Flamingo Park area about men having sex in the park at night. The police asked the task force if the gay community would do something to address the problem.

After months of discussions, the task force in November began distributing fliers to men in or around the park with the snappy title What You Do is Your Business, Where You Do it is Ours. The fliers went on to warn that starting in early December, police would begin to arrest those found illegally loitering in the park.

To no one's great surprise, men pushed out of the park began circulating in the nearby alleyways and driving in their cars around parking lots adjacent to the park. In response, the crackdown on illegal loitering was expanded to these areas.

Speaking at a Miami Beach Commission meeting last month, task force leader Gary Knight urged commissioners to convert the parking adjacent to Flamingo into residential parking only at night. This, he said, would stop men who drive over from Miami looking for sex. Commissioners put off the request for a later meeting after receiving the wrong maps from the city's parking department and hearing a number of comments from residents who are both in favor and against the proposal.

Why gay men have a taste for public sex has both historical and psychological roots. Before homosexuality was decriminalized, it was illegal to operate an establishment catering to homosexuals. So, for many men, the only way to meet one another was in certain public areas (gay women tend to socialize in more private circles).

Today, with numerous gay bars and clubs, that need for men to meet in public has greatly diminished. But for many, the thrill of meeting men in public, and even having sex in public, remains.

The laws against having sex in public are plain. However, laws about loitering have always raised serious questions about civil liberties. Being caught with your pants down is one thing. Being stopped, questioned and arrested for walking near the park at night is something else.

Certainly, the majority of men walking around alleys near Flamingo Park at 3 a.m. probably have another, more lewd intent, than supposedly looking for a lost cat. Yet that does not reduce the police's needs to be judicious with their power to make on-the-spot calls of where the line between personal freedoms and personal interest lies.

This issue of individuals being judged by intent, as opposed to their actions, has great historical precedent for gays and lesbians. Before World War II, it was rare to think of a group of people linked together by their sexuality. Men or women were labeled as deviants or perverts when caught in the act of having sex with someone of the same gender.

Then, during the war, military psychologists began screening military personnel and booting thousands from the service for fitting the dubious psychological profile of a homosexual. Suddenly, a new class of people was born, one that was not based on their actions, but on their presumed intent. In effect, gay people were not allowed to define who they were for themselves, but told in unflattering terms: This is who you are.

For both the gay community and the city of Miami Beach, the issue of public sex and having men chasing men around alleyways and parking lots has become more than just an embarrassment. It threatens to open a Pandora's box of civil liberties that could be divisive.

If the problem is public sex, then those caught in the act should be charged accordingly. But feeding people's suspicions of one another need not be exacerbated by creating boundaries around public spaces where people of differing sexualities have their freedoms held on a shorter leash than others. If the goal is to get sex back in the bedroom, then let's not make it a political football and get everyone in on the game.

Keep it safe

The South Beach AIDS project will present a workshop "Lovers and Safer Sex" where gay couples can talk about safer sex at 8 p.m. Monday at the Loading Zone, 1426A Alton Rd. (behind Dominos Pizza). SoBap's HIV+ social hour will be held from 9 to 11 p.m. Wednesday at Swirl, 1049 Washington Ave. Call 532-1033 for info on both events.

Happy together

Noted gay author Eric Marcus is writing a book titled The Happy Gay Marriage (Anchor/Doubleday, mid-1998). Long-term (nine-plus years) gay and lesbian couples interested in being interviewed should e-mail Marcus at Lgcouples(AT_SIGN)aol.com.

Out and Around is a column about gay and lesbian life in South Florida. Eugene J. Patron is a freelance writer. Material can be faxed to him at 868-4466 or e-mailed at epatron@aksi.net.

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