The meeting was piggy-backed on the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's annual Creating Change conference.

"There is important organizing starting to take place around the nation concerned about crackdowns on sex -- not just gay-male sex, but that's the focus here," said University of California at Berkeley professor and gay activist/author Eric Rofes. "We want to encourage local organizers to come together and share strategies and thinking. And we want to support the development of greater voices within gay communities of folks who continue to champion sexual-liberation values during an era when such values are demeaned and discounted."

Some of the alleged "neo-conservatives" include gay journalists and authors Michelangelo Signorile, Gabriel Rotello, Larry Kramer and Andrew Sullivan. Outing inventor Signorile has a new book out chronicling drug abuse and "barebacking" (anal sex without condoms) among gays who attend the large "circuit parties" around the world. Rotello's new book attempts to prove that core groups of promiscuous urban homosexuals are transmitting HIV at a high enough rate to keep AIDS statistics climbing. Activist and playwright Kramer's ongoing denouncements of promiscuity stretch back as far as his 1978 book Faggots. Former New Republic Editor Andrew Sullivan is a vocal proponent of gay marriage.

"Since I had been following the New York club-closure problems and started seeing that these incidences were varied and nationwide, I thought Creating Change would be a great opportunity to inform, mobilize and motivate others around these issues," said San Diego activist Tony Valenzuela, the main instigator of the summit.

"After speaking to people from all over the country about it, I realized there was great interest and urgency. We want the summit and surrounding events to get people to think about the issues presented -- public-sex debates, HIV-prevention debates, harassment and closure of clubs, etc. -- from a pro-sex standpoint instead of the moralizing, restrictive rhetoric coming from the Rotello/Signorile/Kramer stooges who are hooked on histrionics. We also want some action items or resolutions to come out of the summit so as to move these issues forward in a tangible way."

"Attacks on queer sex and sexualities [are] sweeping the nation," according to material prepared for the summit.

"Over the past two years there has been an increased attack against marginalized sexualities including the harassment and closure of sex clubs, bathhouses, and public sex spaces; racist selective enforcement and policing of gay/lesbian bars; anti-sex AIDS activism and education campaigns; increased policing of and attacks on sex workers; and the burgeoning demonizing of sex cultures appearing in current gay men's writings," the organizers state.

"While many are referring to this as the 'New Puritanism,' others see this as a full-scale Sex Panic targeting our bodies, desires, and communal spaces. Recent assaults on gay-male sex and sexual cultures sparked the organization of this Summit and will be at the center of the day's agenda. However, this offensive must be seen within a broader context in which all sex outside state- sanctioned heterosexual marriage is threatened."

In San Francisco, activists met recently at the Castro Metropolitan Community Church to plan their participation in the summit.

"The recently debated Department of Health's Sex Club Guidelines one of the vast number of issues the summit will address," said that ban private spaces in sex clubs is a good example of just local writer and organizer Race Bannon.

The summit also may include some kind of media event at San Diego's Marian Bear Memorial Park, site of a recent police sting operation that nabbed over 40 cruisers.

Cops dressed in camouflage hid in the bushes while undercover hunks in tight jeans and tank tops enticed horny men down the trails. An acquaintance of this reporter was cruised by a decoy for 90 minutes. The acquaintance finally followed the muscle stud down a trail and was arrested for "lewd behavior" when he fondled his own penis through his jeans.

TV-news reporting on the sting operation was sensationalistic at best. On August 8, the local ABC affiliate, KGTV-Channel 10, offered this shock-horror report:

"Police say they want residents to be able to use Clairemont's Marian Bear Memorial Park, and not walk into the bathroom and discover men having sex. Or walk the trails and see men having sex in the bushes. Residents near the park have complained about overt sexual activity among men out in the open on park property. Police went undercover Thursday morning and 10 News got exclusive video of three men being handcuffed and led away. So far, police have arrested 40 suspects and expect to take in quite a few more. Most of the suspects are reportedly married men who use the park as a way to engage in gay sex in secret. Police emphasize that the undercover operation isn't an attack on the gay community, but a way to stop illegal outdoor sex in a public park. Police say that they won't be satisfied until the park is safe and clean for the residents to use in total comfort."

That last sentence is a homophobic classic. It suggests gay men walking on the trails make a park unsafe and unclean. And it assumes that all Clairemont residents are straight people who become uncomfortable in the presence of gays.

The situation in San Diego is hardly unique. Visitors to the World Wide Web site http://www.cruisingforsex.com have reported more than 350 police actions against cruisers nationwide in the past 10 months. And the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and local activists are routinely taking TV newsrooms to task for clueless, skewed or deliberately sensationalized reporting on male cruising.

Where, When

The Sex Panic! Summit takes place November 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Spruce Street Forum in San Diego's queer Hillcrest neighborhood. Participants will "strategize and form alliances." Three teach-ins will cover the "History of Sex Panics," "International Perspectives on Sex Panic" and "Analysis of Anti- Sex Critiques Within the Gay Community."

On November 14 and 15, summit organizers will make presentations at the Creating Change conference. "This 'conference-within-a- conference' will serve as a powerful track of sex-positive presentations and discussions which will allow for expansive analysis and the powerful mobilization of activists," says Valenzuela.

For further information, call Tony Valenzuela at (619) 295-6067 or (619) 525-3485 or e-mail him at arcadio@ix.netcom.com

Copyright (c) 1997 Rex Wockner. All rights reserved.