An Honest Question From A Straight Guy To Gay Folks

Why in God’s name is the public bathroom a hookup spot?

As longtime readers know I support equal rights for gays, gay marriage, etc. I just don’t get why anyone gay or straight would pick somewhere as totally ick as a bathroom.

This is an honest question.

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17 Responses to “An Honest Question From A Straight Guy To Gay Folks”


  1. Gravatar Icon 1 riffle

    At least in part, especially with older gays or in parts of the country where there aren’t gay bars, it goes back to a time when homosexuality itself was a crime.

    There weren’t that many places to meet. And for gays now who are in the closet, that’s probably still true at least in their minds.

    I’m sure the adrenaline of possibly getting caught may have something to do with it (like when rich kids like Wynona Ryder shoplift).

    But looking at it historically may tell a bit about it. My guess, anyway.

    Ran across this book earlier today when thinking about the issue myself:
    link

  2. Gravatar Icon 2 jcw

    It isn’t just the bathrooms. When I was seventeen, I worked as a caretaker in a county park in central Florida. I spent way too much of my day (1) painting over the long (and disgusting) notes that got left in the men’s room, (2) fixing the glory holes that got cut in the stall walls, and (3) painting over the semen stains that dripped down from those glory holes.

    Sure, I can see how being in the closet could make things like that happen. But still.. bleagh!

  3. Gravatar Icon 3 Robert McClelland

    Why in God’s name is the public bathroom a hookup spot?
    I just don’t get why anyone gay or straight would pick somewhere as totally ick as a bathroom.

    Why don’t you direct that question to the members of the mile high club?

  4. Gravatar Icon 4 riffle

    One other thing I wanted to add, is that when anonymity is essential (as in Craig’s case and the case of many when homosexuality was illegal), you wouldn’t invite someone back home.

    If Craig did stuff like that, he would have been found out long ago. As it is, he got away with it for decades, which is important when homosexuality is a crime.

  5. Gravatar Icon 5 Mike B.

    Well, bathrooms offer a small amount of privacy, the occupants are already partly undressed, and they’re restricted to one sex. If you can get around the ick factor (which actually works in reverse for a fair number of guys), they’re just about ideal for anonymous sex, or would be if the police didn’t patrol them.

  6. Gravatar Icon 6 Mr. Dave

    If there was a bathroom where a heterosexual man could go to meet a willing woman and have anonymous sex there would be a line a mile long 24/7. Restroom/rest stop/park sex is caused my men — not necessarily gay men. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

  7. Gravatar Icon 7 Oliver Willis

    I still don’t get it, and I don’t think the mile high club is the exact same - for one, most airline bathrooms are not nearly as gross as a public restroom is.

  8. Gravatar Icon 8 Duros62

    Restroom/rest stop/park sex is caused my men — not necessarily gay men. Let’s not pretend otherwise

    Let’s look at it like this. I don’t want to make judgements here, but it seems like public restrooms are the place for hetero or “hetero” men to hook up. I think it has a lot to do with shame. And not the good kind. Public toilets are dirty and kind of sad. If you were a “straight” man with a wife and kids, driven to this kind of behavior by an urge you can’t control, identify or come to terms with, what do you have left? Shame.

  9. Gravatar Icon 9 Enlightened Liberal

    What he said. Never heard of an out gay man being found in these places.

  10. Gravatar Icon 10 Duros62

    Out gay prostitutes, yes.

  11. Gravatar Icon 11 OxyCon

    When I read that Craig rubbed his hand back and forth across the bottom of the stall partition, and that this is common among “gay cruisers”, all I could think of was all the nasty bathrooms I’ve been in where it was obvious that hundreds of guys urinated all aver the partition wall.
    Who in their right freaking mind would ever put their hand on the bottom of the partition?
    No wonder why Bush immediately goes for the Purell after shaking someone’s hand. He obviously knows a thing or two about gay bathroom cruising.

  12. Gravatar Icon 12 OxyCon

    JCW - couldn’t pay me enough money to do that. I’d rather install guillotines in those glory holes (everyone reach down and groan).

    Mr. Dave - I wish I could tap my feet three times and get laid (heterosexual of course).

  13. Gravatar Icon 13 Dkelsmith

    I would say he hooked up out of shame. The question that remains is why are closeted people like this so anti-gay in public? Of course, my belief someone with such rabid views toward gays is hiding something filthy in his life. Filth in regard to his underhandedness and dishonesty, not who he REALLY wants to sleep with.

  14. Gravatar Icon 14 LynxSL

    It is quite Simple really, the hornier you are, the stupider you are ( I should know).

    Anyway, half of the reason that public bathrooms are “gross” or “icky” or whatever is because some sort of sex has been happening there.

    They are single sex, eliminating half the people who would normally complain. Then, the patrons are half exposed, if doing normal business anyway. And if cops aren’t around that is OPPORTUNITY.

    And lastly anything can become exciting if associated with pleasure. If you don’t believe me take a trip to some of the seedier sites on the internet or find a large x-rated video store ( gay or straight) and peruse a little ( and NO, I’m not talking about S&M ). If you think a public bathroom is disgusting…..

  15. Gravatar Icon 15 natthedem

    Dan Savage (the syndicated sex columnist) talked about this yesterday on CNN and did a good job addressing the bathroom issue. As Enlightened Liberal pointed out, it’s not out gay men that are having sex in bathrooms.

  16. Gravatar Icon 16 Duros62

    There is also the unspoken “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule in bathrooms. How many times have you been in a bathroom and heard someone who wounded like they were in severe gastronomic distress and not said a word when they come out of the stall? Just the head-nod of acknowledgment and get the hell out of there.

  17. Gravatar Icon 17 Enoch Root

    Think smokin’ in the boy’s room, except with sex.

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