Gay Today: World

Over 1,000 Gay & Bisexual Males Arrested in 3-Month Period

American Statistics Represent April, May & June, 1998

Silence from Gay Organizations Angers Sex Freedom Crusaders

Compiled by Badpuppy's GayToday
From Cruising for Sex Reports

Figures released Wednesday indicate that over a thousand men have been arrested over the course of a 3-month period (April, May and June, 1998) while engaging in or soliciting for consensual homosexual sex in the United States. The figures, based on anecdotal reports, were released by cruisingforsex.com , a web site that monitors and reports upon a variety of semi-public cruising sites worldwide.

"These numbers are shocking," stated Keith Griffith, owner of the web site. "The amount of human suffering this reflects and the lack of apparent outrage from national gay groups is something I look upon with astonishment."

sexoutlaw.gif - 15.74 K Available thru Amazon.Com For the last week, columnist John Fall who writes a twice-weekly column for the web site has attempted to get a statement from Human Rights Campaign and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the two largest gay and lesbian political organizations in the U. S., in anticipation of the release of these figures. Fall issues a scathing indictment of these agencies in his web site column.

"According to data estimates based on the numbers supplied (to this web site), at least 854 and up to 1039 men were arrested in these three months alone," stated Fall. His column then draws a comparison between numbers of men arrested and the figures supplied by Human Rights Campaign regarding job discrimination cases.

"For the first FIVE months of 1997, 151 complaints of job discrimination based on sexual orientation were received in nine of the eleven states with laws prohibiting such discrimination." The job complaints figures were the most recent made available by Human Rights Campaign in a recent request for statistics. Just to be fair, Fall extrapolates the discrimination figures to represent all 50 states, but still arrives at 504 cases reported in a 3-month period. He then adds: "Which issue do you think large 'gay and lesbian' organizations are rallying around? Well, it ain't the one that involves sex." sexbook.gif - 6.59 K Available thru Amazon.Com

Fall goes on to demand to know why Human Rights Campaign, reportedly with 58 staff members and a $13 million budget is silent about this "on-going nightmare."

"Sure, laws protecting queers in the workplace are important, but so is protecting queer men from police departments who have nothing better to do than engage in sweeps and entrapment. Men's lives are being ruined daily by these police actions, but there is nary a peep on the subject from the Human Rights Campaign."

The numbers used to calculate these arrest figures are gathered from e-mailed tips received by the sex cruiser's web site, usually by men who witness police sting operations or are themselves victims of stings.

One man from Pennsylvania, having been arrested in an adult bookstore video booth, wrote to say, "Nine of us were arrested at Adult World for 'publicly masturbating while other men watched.' That's how it read in the paper with our names published for all to see. Official charges are public indecency and public lewdness. It has ruined my career and marriage. I have not been fired, but I am going to leave due to being either shunned or scorned. It is awful. My wife has thrown me out saying: 'I didn't know you were a queer!' I am without hope."

The cruising web site acknowledges that the data being used to determine these figures is hardly scientific. But, as Fall notes: "The vast majority of men who are witnessing sweeps, entrapment and arrests, or who are themselves being arrested, are not reporting those incidents to this site. Thus, the numbers reported to the site are probably quite low."

Fall urges the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to fund positions to track the numbers.