In case you didn’t know (or care), yesterday George Michael was busted again, this time for possession of crack cocaine in Hampstead (my birthplace…shame on him). But to me, the poignant part of the story isn’t that he was caught with drugs but that once again, he was caught whilst no doubt cruising the South End Green toilets. I don’t get it. Gay men have fought for decades, centuries even, to be able to parade around out and proud, make out, hit on each other, have gay establishments, etc. yet they’re still cruising for sex in public bathrooms.

I get why Sen. Larry Craig did it. He’s not an open member of the gay community; he’s a so-called “straight” politician so he had to stealthly hunt for sex. But someone like George Michael, honey we knew you were gay when we saw you dancing in those dolphin shorts in the “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” video. You’d also think he’d have his share of groupies; what would be the point of touring otherwise?

Gay men cruising the toilets in the 21st century is almost equivalent to me becoming a courtesan in order to find a husband…archaic at best, just plain scatalogical at worst.

I recently saw “Prick Up Your Ears” with Gary Oldman again. The film chronicles the raunchy lifestyle of gay British playwright Joe Orton in the ’60s. But those were the days when things were a little more on the DL, if you catch my drift.  

I get it, some folks are drawn to the seedy side of life. For every gay man into inhaling the smell of decades-old piss as he goes down on a guy there is a woman prostituting herself online, in an exotic dance club or by way of good-old fashioned hookering. There’s a scurrilous and salatious underbelly aspect to things. 

I guess, living near West Hollywood skews your vision of the gay scene. The only cruising I see there involves same sex marrieds taking the adopted Guatemalan baby out for a spin to be the envy of other gay marrieds. Seems pretty cozily gentrified to me.

And I’ve asked gay male friends of mine why such a surprisingly large percentage of gay men still admit to hitting public bathrooms and such for cruising purposes, and they too remain mystified. Perhaps the answer lies not in their gayness but rather their maleness. It is, after all, tradition for the males to piss to mark their territory. So maybe bathroom cruising gives them a sense of power and dominion which in turn gets them off?

In all actuality, the fact that gay men still cruise bathrooms when they don’t necessarily need to, is comforting to me. Once a HUGE fan of the creativity and edginess of gay culture, I had grown bored of its mainstream yuppified side with its Wills and Graces. Alas there is something kinky left for society not to accept. Welcome mavericks….now turn away from the urinal and drop your pants…

Posted by Shana Ting Lipton