So. Many. People. Especially gay men. But especially everyone.
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Finally we’ve arrived in the year 2000…
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At one point in history, public sex was really the only kind of sex some gay men could have. If they were closeted, and they wanted casual sex, they might not be able to take a man home with them. So, since many gay people were closeted then, that meant hooking up where you could, when you could. There was (and still is, though much reduced) an entire culture of cruising for casual sex. Some public restrooms were notorious for this sort of thing. At one of my alma maters, there were two particularly “cruisy” bathrooms. I remember the graffiti in one of the stalls: “Don’t poop where you suck dick. It’s stinky!”
There’s also the MSM phenomenon. Men, sometimes married, who identify as “straight” but nevertheless like to have sex with other men. I know, I know, the sexuality police will come along and say “Then they’re not straight!” Yeah, okay, fine. But they say they are. And they don’t want to take guys home with them, or go to other guys’ homes, so the next best option is a public park.
There were, and still are, whole systems of how you indicate you’re open for business, as it were. In public restrooms, there was the foot dance. I tap, then you tap, then I tap, then you tap, then one person reaches under the stall. In public parks, backing into a parking spot was a clue. You could approach a guy sitting in his car if he backed into the spot, ask for a cigarette or the time or something, and then give The Look.
Ahhh, those were the days. Now we queers just get married and get a mortgage, like straight people.
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Also, if the door is closed, and they’re not taking up every single bathroom, I don’t give a shit if they’re having sex or not in there. Why anyone cares, I don’t know.
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The doorknobs will have sensors that can detect hairy palms???
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Because many people are miserable control freaks who cannot stand the idea that everyone isn’t exactly like them; the lack of ‘familiar conformity’ terrifies them, IMO.
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Because these groups think that men dressed as women, using the cover of being transgender, are waiting to rape every woman in a public restroom. Measures like bathroom bills, that have died thank goodness, back up that they have this belief.
It’s the same culture of fear that permeates the right. A kidnapper, murderer, robber or rapist around every corner. Maybe whole packs of them. Seeking to harm you, your family and take everything you love away form you. Buy a gun, think of the kids and make sure there’s nowhere to hide. Because why aren’t you as scared as we are? You must be crazy.
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Didn’t I see the Portland Loo featured on BB previously?
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This seems like a terrible idea for a municipality; but if a band called “Porthcawl in Wales” released the album “anti-sex systems” I could definitely see that working out.
I’d be curious to know what their threat model, explicit or implied, is. Have their teenagers not invented parking in cars(or do their adult authority figures not know about it)? Is this the closest they can legally get to spaying and neutering the homeless? Do they have a particularly riotous and inebriated tourist season? Still fighting the war against the pink menace of the covert homosexuals?
You don’t embark on an expensive project like this without some idea of what you are trying to stop; so they must have one, even if not made explicit.
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No Sex Please, We’re Porthcawlians?
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No reason we straight people should be the only miserable ones.
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Curious UK fact - men meeting men for sex is toilets is called cottaging as many of the early 20th century public toilets were designed to look like a thatched cottage.
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At least it’s only alarms and water spray, so far. It should be interesting the first time a parent and child set it off.
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“Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone – somewhere – is having a good time.”
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Maybe they should instead invest in a nearby set of stalls that facilitate away from home sex, so there’s less need for people to use toilets for sex.
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Many years ago, a young lady and I attempted to get frisky on a greyhound bus. Don’t judge- it was the middle of the night, we were going through Missouri, and my Walkman had broken- there really wasn’t anything else to do. It was, in every way, a deeply unsatisfactory experience and I would not repeat it.
Porthcawl, get a clue from Berlin. Anyone forced by culture or proclivity to seek sexual gratification in a public amenity deserves our support and sympathy, not our censure.
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The part that really bugs me is that they promote fear of the wrong thing. They are the same group who are perfectly fine with rapists getting a slap on the wrist penalty, if they are ever brought up on charges in the first place. They make me fear the so-called “justice” system, and all the incompetent and/or malicious people they’ve put in positions of power within it.
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Pressure sensors? Movement sensors? Automatic doors? Water sprayer? This sounds like an imaginary deterrent rather than something real. If it is real, I can’t imagine it working - not just as intended*, but at all - for any length of time.
*Obviously the mentioned issues with their approach to detecting sex render this totally broken even in theory.
It feels like someone had a horrible idea which they’re talking about as a form of pysops to try to keep people from having sex in toilets, not because they actually built the thing. It’s just so obviously ridiculous.
The irony is that as a result of the trans bathroom panics, I’ve read numerous anecdotes from cis women who were followed into bathrooms by cis het men who took it upon themselves to be bathroom police because they thought the women were too masculine looking. In a few cases, they prevented the women from using the restroom at all. Is there a name for a panic whipped up over an imaginary problem that ends up creating some of the very problem it was trying to prevent?
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ironically, anti-sex measures are meant to prevent others from getting that
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