Sunday, September 02, 2007

"Tearoom Trade"
A NYTimes op-ed by author Laura MacDonald today describes a study conducted in 1970 with unethical means but interesting results. Among other things, combined with Senator Craig's situation, it tells us we haven't learned very much, or come very far in responding to the secret complexities of sexuality .
For almost 40 years most police departments have been aware of something that still escapes the general public: men who troll for sex in public places, gay or “not gay,” are, for the most part, upstanding citizens.
...
[M]ost of them were married; their houses were just a little bit nicer than most, their yards better kept. They were well educated, worked longer hours, tended to be active in the church and the community but, unexpectedly, were usually politically and socially conservative, and quite vocal about it.

In other words, not only did these men have nice families, they had nice families who seemed to believe what the fathers loudly preached about the sanctity of marriage.
...
[F]or our part, let’s stop being so surprised when we discover that our public figures have their own complex sex lives, and start being more suspicious when they self-righteously denounce the sex lives of others.

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