NOM BLOG

Does Gay Rights Include the Right to Have Sex in Public Parks?

 

We are pretty sure most people, including most LGBT people, would say "no."

In Boston, these days, they aren't so sure:

State Police arrested 31 men at the park this past summer, most of them for trespassing, reviving fears in the gay community that the police were once again targeting gay men. The sexual orientation of most of the men is unknown, but their arrests prompted gay-rights advocates to meet recently with high-ranking public safety officials in Governor Deval Patrick’s administration.

... But police officials say the recent work at the Medford park did not target any one group. Their overall goal, they say, was to maintain safety in state-owned parks and protect delicate grounds, which have been damaged by people veering off main paths to use drugs or engage in sex.

Officials at the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said that “men who have sex with men’’ go off main paths at the Middlesex Fells Reservation to have trysts, trampling on natural resources, according to a draft of the department’s resource management plan.

The language rankles advocates, who said it unfairly blames one group of people. DCR officials said they would revise the language in the plan’s final draft. -- The Boston Globe

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