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 The sudden media firestorm around Idaho Senator Larry Craig's arrest for lewd conduct is spinning off some pretty interesting stories - ones that will probably leave a generation of parents hesitant to take their kids into public restrooms across the country, and those that are equally infuriating that local police seemingly have nothing better to do.
365gay.com picks up an AP story that reveals that, including Craig, Minneapolis police officers have made 41 arrests for lewd conduct in the same airport in four months. They have even responded to Craigslist ads posted by travelers passing through:
The 40 others caught up in the
sting, according to the police reports, included airport and airline employees,
an account executive with Revlon, an IT consultant for Ernst & Young, a 3M
executive and a Lands End employee.
In an incident June 25, [Officer] Karsnia
arrested three men at once.
He wrote in his report that he
was waiting for two suspects to come out of their stalls to be arrested. Then a
third suspect near urinals exposed himself to the officer with a smile.
(Karsnia, who is the same officer who arrested Craig, must be one hot ticket.)
ABC News comes out with a story seemingly aimed straight at the unassuming mothers of America that details gay men's cruising habits. It takes a jab, though, at Senator Craig, in its insistence that cruisers are deeply closeted, unhappy gay men:
With many other options available for gay men to meet each other,
Gershen Kaufman, a professor emeritus of psychology at Michigan State
University and author of the book "Coming Out of Shame," said public
cruising is practiced mainly by deeply closeted men.
"Cruisers are not sex offenders. They are deeply, deeply
closeted. There is a lot of self-hatred and shame and they can't allow
themselves to come to terms with their sexuality. There is also the
added element of danger and being discovered," he said.
Also, Towleroad digs up an interesting story on Time.com that reports on a big bust of nefarious homoseks'ul activity in Idaho -- from 1955.
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written by Skin on August 30, 2007
"Deeply closeted, unhappy gay men"? Perhaps, but don't apply that across the board. Give credence to that element of danger or "thrill of risk". I personally know several openly gay men who acknowledge cruising toilets for just the excitement.