HADDAM, CT - Park Still A Hotbed For Illicit Sex

This always gets on my nerves when I read a story like this. Of course, across the United States, it is happening every single day. This is happening in my state of Connecticut. Under cover police officers are arresting gay men for having sex in public parks. There are a couple of things wrong with all of this.

First off, the law is not enforced uniformly. I've heard of numerous instances where straight couples who are caught making out in cars are told to take it somewhere else. They are let go without an arrest. When gay couples do exactly the same thing, it often results in an arrest along with your name and address being published in the local paper.

Secondly, many older gay men associate such behavior as a form of socialization. I know, you think that's a cop out, but it's really not. In the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and much of the nineties, there were no places for gay men to meet in many areas that were safe. This is still true of many places today in the United States.

If you went to a gay bar and it was raided, you would still be arrested and your name would most likely be posted in the papers. It also could be a source for gay bashers. If you reported a crime from being bashed by someone, you could risk being arrested and bashed by the police as well and again, your name could be published in the local paper.

So, over time, people went underground for their associations with others like themselves. This is just human nature. Anyone would do it because we are social animals. We all want to feel like we aren't alone, that there are others like ourselves.

It is getting better for gay youth. There are more and more safe outlets for them to openly acknowledge they are gay, lesbian, or transgendered without the risk of arrest. I would venture to say that ninety-five percent of those arrested are over they age of thirty. Maybe in time, when the police understand that the source of the problem isn't gay men but the bigoted policies of the past, we can actually start solving the problem.

The solution isn't to publish the names of gay men in the paper who are caught in the parks. The solution in the long run is to find safe and publicly acceptable outlets for them to be with each other. This will only happen when society begins accepting openly gay people in it's midst. All an arrest will achieve is more bigoted attitudes within police departments, feelings of unfair treatment by the gay community by the police, and, in cases where some individuals are outed by an arrest, you can expect to see some suicides. Is that the answer?

Unfortunately, some police officers out on the streets today would say, "yes".

August 7, 2004 By GARY LIBOW, Courant Staff Writer

HADDAM -- Word of an impending police undercover crackdown on illicit sexual activity at Seven Falls State Park doesn't appear to have deterred gay men looking for an encounter.

On Friday at 3 p.m., men sat in two vehicles in the lower parking lot of the state park, located just over the Haddam-Middletown border. On Thursday afternoon, several cars were parked alongside Route 154 as well as in the lower lot.

Resident Trooper Jim Connelly said that state police are teaming with state Department of Environmental Protection police to combat lewd behavior that is keeping hikers and picnickers out of the park.