A forced outing is damn traumatizing and always causes nothing but harm.
Well, never mind all that if you’re Hollywood, Florida police, who last week raided an adult store and arrested 13 men who were having consensual sexual encounters in a private area.
Police officers went to the trouble of paying $25 to enter locked, private rooms at the back of the Pleasure Emporium in South Florida where men were masturbating and engaging in oral sex.
After the arrests, several news outlets reported on the incident, revealing the men’s names, their hometowns, ages and mugshots.
The smearing has justifiably led to bitter backlash. According to the Miami New Times, an attorney for one of the men says her client was fired from his job in the medical field as a result of the coverage.
It gets worse: the man (we’re not using his name and no outlet run by humans with a shred of decency would) had fled Cuba 20 years prior to avoid persecution.
"He was persecuted in Cuba because of his sexuality," says his attorney, Abbie Cuellar. "He was thrown out of his home and thrown out of school because he was gay. He fled as a result and thought America was going to be this beacon of 'freedom.' He now basically has lost everything he has worked for… He is horribly suicidal.”
Just to repeat, these men were arrested, humiliated and worse—their lives are probably wrecked— for having consensual sex in private.
The raid cost taxpayers $240, as the two police officers got four hours of overtime pay a piece.
Hollywood PD has made a habit of raiding the Pleasure Emporium. They arrested six men there in February. In a statement, they defended last week’s raid, calling the locked, private rooms that you have to pay to get into at Pleasure Emporium a “public space."
"Clearly, this was a private setting within a private setting — you would have to pay to get into it," Cuellar says. "It's not in a residential neighborhood. There's no danger a kid would ever walk past, even. The fact that they’ve been made out to be these sexual deviants, I feel like I’m back in the 1960s! I don't understand the point of this arrest other than smearing and humiliating these men."
For the full story: Miami New Times
h/t: Pink News
Any locked rooms at a strip club?
I started cruising in 1969,
I started cruising in 1969, we would go to the railroad station mens room, the rest stops on the highways.the adult bookstores ans outside wooded cruising areas. There was always a risk of being hasselled by the police…who we called Miss Alice Blue Gown (cuz of the uniforms). They would pin our cars in and question us, chase us into the woods, just generally do their best to bum us out. Here I am 50 years later and they never got the best of me. We even went to the clubs and bath houses in NYC, upper state Ct and even in Boston. Can't forget those summers in Provincetown either!They may shame some of us, make us lose a job, treat us strangely at work, etc. We are strong and we will overcome this again. My heart goes out to those men who had their privacy invaded. I hope they stay strong and land on their feet somewhere else, and if they go back to the adult store…take it to a motel where they can't bust in and arrest you. Gay people have been here forever,and we are here to stay! Shame on those cops ruining people's lives. Just remember Karma is a bitch, it will come back to you dumb ass police…I hope your other half is stepping out on you while you're making this overtime haha~
Clearly this is bad reporting
Clearly this is bad reporting on everyone's part. It's an establishment open to the public therefore it is in a public space. Secondly all police work 12 hour shifts. They always get 4 hours of overtime pay per shift. Please do your research before writing sensationalized stories without the facts.
Bullshyt. A motel is “open to
Bullshyt. A motel is “open to the public”, but when you pay for a LOCKED private room, that would be like the police raiding the motel and going room to room arresting people. If it’s a private club you have to pay to get into or be a part of then it isn’t “open to the public”
Also your little bit about their pay is completely irrelevant to the article. All the article mentioned regarding it was the insignificant amount this raid cost taxpayers in relation to how it wasn’t worth ruining these men’s lives
I smell baconÂ
I smell bacon