May 5, 2009 | Sex Life

Cruiser Beware Month begins

CruisingForSex.com has dubbed May “Cruiser Beware Month,” a campaign designed to remind men of the potential legal issues surrounding semi-public sex. May was selected because, with the warmer weather, newscasts tend to focus more heavily on gay cruising that other times during the year.

“May not only is the time of year when the weather heats up and more guys head to the bushes for action, but it is also a major ‘sweeps month’ for local television,” said Keith Griffith, founder of CruisingForSex.com. “Sweeps is the time local media often finds itself in bed with the cops to carry out sting operations of men cruising for sex.

“Just last week we got a report from a Bakersfield, Calif., location where one customer saw not just cop cars and a cop van parked outside, but also a news van for a local television station. I’m sure it was a joint sting in which the media gets to film and photograph those men cops arrest. In fact, I would not be surprised to learn a reporter instigated the whole thing, asking the police to come along so they could get some good footage."

Relying on the most current technology, CruisingForSex.com will actually use Twitter to provide instant alerts of potential stings (at Twitter.com/cruisingforsex).

There is also a social action component to the month. A political primer has been published on the site offering ideas for  the decriminalization of public sex.

“The double standard of how laws are applied is especially galling to see,” Griffith said. “Esquire and New York magazines recently did stories glamorizing public sex, but of course their audience was mostly straight, and for heterosexual sex this is nothing more than pleasure. For men cruising other men, you can have your life ruined if you get caught.”

It takes the fun out of public sex when you have to keep one eye out for the police. Or does it just make things so much hotter?

Gay cruisers brace for sweeps month [GayVN]