Introduction

Every day in city parks throughout the country - and around the world - men cruise other men in search of sexual intimacy. Male-to-male cruising and sexual activity is a pervasive, historic use of public parks, but it is a use most often regarded as inappropriate and illegal, and is frequently the target of policing actions.' Discourse in critical geography and landscape architecture has explored how the regulation of public space functions as an agent of social control, and there is a growing body of literature on the delimiting effects of spatial policy on women, racial and ethnic minorities, the lower and under classes, and sexual minorities. This inquiry will explore the social regulation of public space by investigating the policing of cruising and sexual encounters in urban public parks. There have been different approaches taken to address the problem, varying across time and place; methods range from brutal suppression to strict policing, deterrence through spatial design, conflict resolution, and accommodation. The decisions to utilize different methods are not capricious, but rather the effect of specific social, political, and individual forces, and this thesis is an investigation of those forces.

As an openly gay man, I am personally aware of the (hetero)sexual norms which govern conduct in public places and the possible recriminations when these norms are transgressed. This is the grounding for my interest in the enforcement of behavioral norms in public spaces. I have been aware of the tradition of male-to-male cruising and sexual activity in public parks since I was a teenager. My interest in this activity was piqued during a sojourn in China in 1995, where I observed that parks were the primary venue for men to meet for homosexual contact and that select parks were crowded with men in the evenings and nights.2 My interest in the policing of such activity was furthered by media coverage of a Seattle Police crackdown on illicit park sex (one headline read: "Sex Cops Shocked by What Lurks in Park.")3 As I investigated further I became aware of the controversy engendered and the energy directed at this problem. I wondered as to the origins and history of this policing activity, who were the individuals and interest groups involved, and why the gay community- and other progressive forces remained silent, particularly since these communities are well organized and vocal in Seattle. As a man in Tucson stated regarding a police sweep there: "If you had 300 arrests with any other ethnic group or minority for this...the police chief would be fired."4

Cruising is generally defined as the active search for a potential sexual partner, and in the broadest definition 'cruising' occurs almost continuously among a broad cross section of society, from high school classrooms to shopping malls, office building lifts, and singles bars.5 Homosexual cruising is at once similar to, and fundamentally different than, traditional heterosexual flirting. Homosexual cruising, because of the severe legal and social prohibitions against homosexual desire, has evolved into a highly ritualized, covert activity. Homosexual cruising in public places, such as streets and parks, often occurs contemporaneously with, and unnoticeable to, the everyday heterosexual fabric of society. Certain public venues are utilized to such an extent for cruising, and provide the opportunity for immediate gratification, that they develop reputations as cruising grounds. These places attract a considerable number of men, and there are many variations in the intentions, identity, and practices of those who cruise. Most of the men are searching for quick sexual gratification, but many also are searching for social or emotional contact, and some are exploring their sexuality. Many, if not most, do not consider themselves gay, and therefore it misleading to label this activity as 'gay' cruising. Making the distinction between 'gay' as an identity, and 'homosexual contact' as an act, and because cruising activity does involve homosexual contact, I will use the term 'homosexual cruising' and 'cruising' to refer to male-to-male cruising activity.

Cruising in parks is part of a larger pattern of cruising and anonymous sex in public places. Other public venues are restrooms (called 'Tearooms' in the U.S. and 'Cottages' in England,) porn bookstores, movie houses, and video arcades, and bathhouses.6 In all of these places, men seek other men for (homo)sexual encounters, and in many respects all these venues are part of the debate over 'public' sex, and until recently were all the target of aggressive policing. There is a clear distinction between commercial places expressly designed for cruising - such as bathhouses and video arcades - and public places - such as toilets and parks - where cruising has usurped the intended function. Social changes have brought an end to the policing of 'private' (i.e.- commercial) 'public' sex venues, but public parks, except for a few rare cases, have not become sanctioned public sex venues and continue to be policed.7 Public parks are the most 'public' of these venues and most frequently the subject of controversy. Public parks are tremendously popular cruising locales, and attract a great number of men. Many parks attract hundreds of men each week, and in some parks cruising is the primary activity. This popularity creates problems in many parks, and often results in controversy and decreased use due to the reticence of the general public to share space with these activities. (Appendix 2)

The first part of this thesis provides background to understand the issues involved. I begin with a discussion of the regulation of public space, with particular attention to the spatial regulation of sexuality and the role of the public / private dichotomy. Chapter three examines the complexities of cruising and suppression, reviewing the etiology of cruising and the opposition to it, as well as the psychosocial and spatial aspects of cruising. Chapter four investigates the forces and factors that shape contemporary policing response I begin with a survey of policing practices, identifying the principle interest groups and their motives and methods. In chapter five I examine challenges to policing practices, and analyze six cases in which policy was successfully challenged. Chapter six is an examination and analysis of recent policing incidents in three Seattle parks. These parks each have a history of cruising and have been the subject of recent controversy, yet the issue was addressed differently in each case.

This study adds to the growing literature on sexuality and space, providing some new research on attitudes and perceptions of an often undiscussed use of urban parks, and brings together historical and contemporary material from a variety of sources. Environmental designers and managers need to be aware of the ideological implications of their actions and of their impact on marginalized citizens. In the past few decades there has been a great deal of discourse on environmental ethics and equity, and serious inquiry into the gender, racial, ethnic and class inequities in park design, management, and allocation.8 Yet there has been remarkably little discussion of sexual minorities and public open space, and there continues to be hostility to individuals who act independently of heteronormative families. The field of cultural landscape has also failed to address sexual minorities, although this group of individuals "...are as natural and intrinsic to human environments as any other aspect of the cultural landscape."9 Other disciplines, notably geography and sociology, are far ahead of environmental design (landscape architecture and urban design) as to inquiries into the spatial aspects of sexuality. Yet it is environmental designers and managers who have great influence on the spatial reality of urban life and awareness on their part is critical.

Public space is under increasing pressure as urban population densities rise and an increasingly diverse population competes for limited open space. There has also been an alarming tendency in recent years to restrict public space, often in the name of cleansing it of undesitable and illegal elements, to make it more palatable to middle-class families.10 This is injurious to marginalized citizens, including sexual minorities.11 This study will hopefully facilitate understanding and a more enlightened approach to the problems of park cruising and sexual activity, and can contribute to a more just, less acrimonious world. This work may also assist public officials, citizens, and designers dealing with conflicts among park user groups, and between park activities and park neighbors, to develop more effective and equitable solutions.

Inquiry into the impact of park management on sexual minorities is also important to the fields of sociology and gay and lesbian studies. Lawrence Knopp has said that "the struggles for lesbian and gay civil rights and citizenship constitute one of the most salient conflicts in Western (especially AngloAmerican) liberal democracies today."12 This struggle has significant spatial dimensions, and landscape architect Gordon Ingram states that space is taking on a pivotal role in the gay and lesbian struggle for equality and attempts to counter homophobia.13 This work will illuminate a small part of this conflict, and for the first time bring together fragments of social history, thereby adding to the emerging body of literature on local gay and lesbian space.

1. I borrow the term male-to-male activity from Rudi C. Bleys. He states in The Geography of Perversion: Male-to-Male Sexual Behaviour Outside the West and the Ethnographic Imagination, 1750-1918 (NY: New York Univ. Press, 1995), 1, that he uses the "awkward term 'male-to-male sexual behaviour'" to deliberately avoid the word 'homosexuality,' "invented in 1869, which was meant to refer specifically to sexual behaviour among males who are identified by others and identify themselves as such...The static notions of 'homosexual identity', largely a western creation, do not correspond to cross-cultural realities."

2. I lived in Taiwan from January to December of 1995, and spent several weeks in both Hong Kong and Mainland China.

3. Dan Raley, "Sex Cops Are Shocked by What Lurks in Park," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 11, 1994.

4. Scot Skinner, "Coalition Seeks to End Abuse of Homosexuals," Arizona Daily Star, August 22, 1991.

5. I used definitions of 'cruising' from John A. Lee, "Cruising," The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality Vol. I (NY: Garland Pub. 1990), 284; and David Timothy Aveline, "A Typology of Perceived HIV/AIDS Risk-Reduction Strategies Used by Men Who "Cruise" Other Men for Anonymous Sex," Journal of Sex Research 32:3 (1995).

6. Gary Goldbaum, Thomas Perdue, and Donna Higgins, "Non-Gay-Identified Men Who Have Sex with Men: Formative Research Results from Seattle, Washington," Public Health Reports, 1996, Vol. III.

7. A noteable exception is Holland. Maurice Van Lieshout, "Leather Nights in the Woods: Homosexual Encounters in a Dutch Highway Rest Area," Journal of Homosexuality 29:1 (1995); and Martin Moerings, "The Netherlands," in Sociolegal Control of Homosexuality (NY: Plenum Press 1997), 302.

8. For example, Don Dawson "Social Class in Leisure: Reproduction and Resistance," Leisure Sciences 10 (1988): 193-202; Myron F. Floyd, "Getting Beyond Marginality and Ethnicity: The Challenge for Race and Ethnic Studies in Leisure Research," Journal of Leisure Research 30:1 (1998): 3-22; Paul Gobster and Antonio Delgado, "Ethnicity and Recreation Use in Chicago's Lincoln Park."; Susan M. Shaw, "Cultural Determination, Diversity, and Coalition in Leisure Research," Leisure Sciences 19 (1997): 277-279; Dorceta Taylor, "Urban Park Use: Race, Ancestry, and Gender," US Forest Service, Tech Report NC-163.

9. Gordon Brent Ingram, "'Open' Space As Strategic Queer Sites," in Queers in Space: Communities/Public Places/Sites of Resistance (Seattle: Bay Press, 1997).

10. Landscape architects have been both the practitioners restricting public space and critics of these policies; see Louise Mozingo, "Pulbic Space in the Balance," Landscape Architecture 85:2 (1995): 43-47, Jane Holtz Kay, "The New/Renewed Urban Parks: Over-design by Committee?" Landscape Architecture 82:12 (Dec., 1992): 38-39.

11. Gays and lesbians use open space in many ways, and increasing numbers of gays and lesbians are incorporating children into their families. The notion that family centered design is heterocentric and homophobic applies in so much as it promotes tradidtional family structure to the exclusion of others.

12. Lawrence Knopp, "Social Justice, Sexuality, and the City," Urban Geography 15:7 (1994): 650.

13. Gordon Ingram, "Marginality and the Landscapes of Erotic Alien(n)ations," in Queers in Space, p. 40.