Sex in the parks

(As a side note: I received an e-mail today questioning my use of the term "gay men," which the writer found redundant. "Gay" inherently refers to men. Would I use the term "lesbian women?"

The answer is: Yes, I would and do. The reason is because I once had a conversation with a lesbian activist who told me that "gay men" and "lesbian women" are the terms they prefer. She said they consider terms such as "gays," "lesbians" and "homosexuals" to be reductive, as though you're defining people solely by their sexual orientation.)

So the county commissioners were talking about it at a press conference with myself, another newspaper reporter and three television stations in attendance. That type of press conference is my least favorite setting in which to conduct an interview. When you're all competing to shout out questions, you don't get much opportunity for nuance or subtlety in either the question or the answer.

After a while, it seemed like we were all trying to ask the same question -- a question which, in different circumstances, I would have phrased something like this:

Is this a problem just because gay men are doing it? Say word got around that parks are great places to pick up women. So I went out to the park, saw an unaccompanied female, and asked her if she'd like to go and get a drink with me. Would I get arrested?

The problem, it turns out, isn't that the men are meeting in the parks. The problem is that they're having sex there too, and apparently doing it in significant numbers.

Fair enough. If I was a parent, I wouldn't be pleased if I brought my kids there and we ran across a couple -- gay, lesbian, or straight -- having sex in public.

If I was by myself, however, I probably would be amused. Just saying.