“Just as I was coming the cops appeared,” he says. And they did not see the police entering. Only he and one other turned to face each other. Tim had walked down the steps to the toilet at the Liverpool Street station when, he says, he saw about eight men standing at the urinal masturbating, looking straight ahead at the wall. It’s dirty.Īs each man’s story begins to unfold, the responses to these jabs swirl together, sometimes echoing each other, often in the most surprising and devastating ways imaginable. Why, it is asked, do they have to do that? It’s disgusting. Judgment and shame, meanwhile, encircle the practice, and from parts of all communities. What began, then, as an investigation into the confines of sex in public toilets, came to expose wide and unexpected areas: how little the inner lives of many gay and bisexual men have changed, how a homophobic culture fuels child sexual abuse, and how much the response to cottaging affects everyone. And for the rest, a joyous, even defiant paroxysm of lust, unencumbered by the prim restraints of heterosexual life. For others, a burst of oxygen in otherwise airless lives. Some started going to toilets for sex when they were still children.Īs such, the picture formed by the cottagers has several faces: For some, it is a shadow of what lies outside. What emerged was a parallel world much deeper, more secretive and more complex than first appears – one of both the liberated and the closeted of politicians and celebrities mixing with the most private of people where self-discovery and escapism intermingle with addiction, abuse, and sexual violence. (In the USA, toilets where men meet for sex are sometimes called “tearooms” rather than cottages – and in Australia, they are called “beats”.) Over the next few weeks, BuzzFeed News began interviewing individuals who go cottaging, including one public figure. And whether police can observe members of the public going to the toilet without invading the privacy of the innocent. The questions also expose the difficulties of allocating police resources (in the case of Liverpool Street, those of the British Transport police) when the 21st-century horrors of terrorism demand so much. Why, in an age of Grindr and internet dating and supposed liberation, are men still meeting for sex in toilets? How can this be policed without damaging the relationship with the LGBT community? Are the laws in this area still fit for purpose – and how can they be applied to serve the public as a whole? What the phone call led to was unexpected: the uncovering of multiple issues that in 2017 many presume are no longer relevant – let alone unresolved – and multiple questions that have never been answered. But Tim is far from alone and, it transpires, his experiences with the police are far from uncommon. We will call him Tim.Ĭlandestine sexual encounters between men in public conveniences sound like a black-and-white scene from the 1950s, not a practice still prevalent 50 years after decriminalisation.
Speaking quickly, he said they had stopped him in London’s Liverpool Street station toilets, paraded him through the station, taken his name and address, questioned him, and warned him that if he was found there again he would be arrested and could have to sign the sex offender register. A distressed man in his mid-forties, his voice tight with anxiety, telephoned BuzzFeed News to say the police had just apprehended him for cottaging. 11.It started with a phone call in early July. Spring through fall, there are water fountains and open public bathrooms in winter, most facilities (and sometimes the slippery portions of the trail) are closed, but pile on the right gear and you’ll get treated to otherworldly landscapes like ice volcanoes. Travel it all-which I’ve done on both bike and foot-and you’ll pass neighborhood barbecues, sports fields, stunning skyline views, bird sanctuaries, and tourist highlights like Buckingham Fountain and Jackson Park.
The 18-plus–mile paved trail that runs its length, with split routes for pedestrians and cyclists, serves as a north-to-south tour of the Midwest’s biggest city.
Name: Cindy Kuzma Social handle: Outdoor expertise: Distance runner and coauthor of Breakthrough Women's Running: Dream Big and Train Smart Best for: Running, cycling, walking, birding Best time to visit: Summer-but every season has its beauty Why the spot is awesome: A nearly 200-year-old mandate designated Lake Michigan’s urban shoreline “forever open, clear and free,” and for the most part, it worked.