Disenchanted with community bickering as well as the police, he moved to the Bay Area in June. Others contend that the signs, which forbid more than two trips past the same spot in six hours, are illegal because the city’s anti-cruising ordinance was designed to control a quite different situation: that of teenage low-riders rumbling down the boulevards. Many in the neighborhood say they have been effective. The cruisers have all but disappeared, but controversy lingers over “No cruising” and “No U-turn” signs placed on the boulevard at the beginning of the year.
GAY MEN CRUISING IN PUBLIC BATHROOM FULL
The police did it in a gay-friendly manner.” Reflecting just how sensitive the matter became, he did not want his full name printed out of fear he would be harassed. “The gay activists are saying our rights are being trampled.
It’s a quality of life issue,” he stressed. Others, like the gay condo owner, groused that the matter was unfairly being turned into a gay-rights rallying cry. A police crackdown ensued, largely quieting the scene-but also stirring dissension and complaints that authorities overreacted.
Weary of seeing more than they cared to in the shrubbery, of being propositioned on the street, of having to clean up used condoms, residents demanded that something be done. “I’d have guests over and guys would be having sex” in the bushes below. “In no way am I a moralist, but it would be embarrassing,” said one exasperated condo owner who regularly got an eyeful from his third floor balcony. A nearby sex club had drawn crowds, as did the boulevard’s mention in gay guides. In the enduring subculture of men cruising for sex with other men, a few pleasant residential blocks of Griffith Park Boulevard had become hot. They were there to meet and flirt, to party and take drugs, and to have sex-in cars and sideyards, and, as Farr discovered, occasionally even on a front stoop. on the weekend his street was as noisy as an airport terminal during the holidays, rowdy with men driving back and forth, hanging out on the sidewalks. Another night, he came home to find two men engaged in sex on the stairs to his second-floor duplex.Īt 2 or 3 a.m. Once he awoke to the sounds of police making an arrest in his yard. Soon after moving to Silver Lake last year, Keith Farr realized the daytime serenity of his neighborhood was deceptive.