Our Man In New York: You daren't tap so much as a toe in the city of voyeurs

by David Usbourne
The Independent

Everybody had something to say last week about Idaho Senator Larry Craig and his shoe-bumping encounter with a cop in Minneapolis Airport. My gay friends focused on the hypocrisy of his record of opposing gay-friendly legislation. A few straights meanwhile seemed shocked that such things go on in public facilities. No man in America will enter a stall now without firmly crossing their feet when seated.

Less discussed is what the police are doing running around trying to catch gay men engaged in carnal activities. It surely has to do with lingering homophobia.

Is the same energy expended on catching heterosexuals coupling in places beyond the bedroom? Didn't Richard Branson recently boast of a youthful indiscretion that qualified him for the Mile High Club (with a married woman no less)? His admission elicited nothing more than knowing giggles. He was not obliged to give up the stewardship of his companies. (Under duress, Craig resigned from the Senate on Saturday.)

Maybe it's an American thing. When it comes to gays and lesbians in this country, you might imagine that the police would be better employed protecting them against discrimination and violence. (The 10th anniversary of the killing of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, is next year.) Sure, quickie liaisons in a public loo seem sleazy, but the reason so many straight people didn't know that such things go on is precisely because it is hidden behind stall doors. It is also, presumably, consensual.

America is homophobic and also puritanical. There is no gain for politicians here in signalling the slightest liberalism when it comes to defending any of the hedonistic pleasures like smoking, drinking, sex and certainly not drugs – or a long-time political peer when sexual foibles are exposed.

(Continued here.)