I find the average person in China is not generally homophobic, although they do expect young people to get married. However, Police in China can be bullies to anyone they consider not toeing the line. Police abusing their power is a socio-political problem which is especially egregious in a totalitarian state.

I think it’s really brave of these guys to stand up to the police in a country where they are so easily denied natural justice.

China’s come a very long way in a very short time. I like to think that China’s going to be a lot more “Western” on civil rights in the long term than any Western country is willing to acknowledge. (Maybe we’re afraid to admit Chinese people have same lust we do?) These men in the park in Guangzhou–they’re the same as young guys like the ones in mills in 1890′s Pittsburgh, or stockyards in 1920′s Omaha, or even on fishing boats today in Alaskan waters. Yeah, it is mostly male. It’s primal and human and it makes humans vulnerable. In these crappy economic times, it’s easy to forget that the person making toys or spatulas we used to make might not be a damn bit different than a lot of us(and if you happen to be more intellectual, don’t be so self-absorbed to think you aren’t included in this).

Morgan, I’m not advocating public sex. In the US and other rich countries, I think it’s a repulsive gay conceit. When you have social acceptance, even partial, spend your damn money and don’t give the people what they don’t want. In other circumstances, sex in a park may be the only option available. That’s how it was in the US, for many people, in 1950 or 1960. There’s very little excuse now. But Morgan, I would ask you to consider that some people are more sexually driven than others; some men go more than once a night, let alone per week. Some men are more sexually potent at 40–maybe 50–than 20 (and yes, I’m talking about 2,3 or more times per day, full mast with no rings or chemicals). Not an average, but a reality. And it’s a more telling reality among gay men because we’re men seeking men. No, not many excuses at all I can see for putting that on view in US, but I gotta say that a Chinese man who can keep it up while under police scrutiny is a man I might oughta respect. Doesn’t “gay” as an identity still come down to sexual attraction over choice in wallpaper patterns?

Anyone bothering for me for sex in a public restroom, I will tell him to go away and to let me pee in peace.

Young boys also use the bathrooms and and their parents don’t need to worry about their children seeing stuff that belongs in a private bedroom behind closed shades and not in a public toilet area.

I am quiet able to wait until a committed relationship to have sex. The longer I go without it, the less interested I am in it. I find life more peaceful and serene without being anxious for sex and for lots of it. It is refreshing to break free of this addiction, and this idea that you can’t live without it.

I am willing for sex with someone I can love and treasure, rather than be a fleeting playtoy for someone to find, feel and to forget.

I think DaveW, you are trying to persuade gay men into staying on a sexual addiction merry-go-round by feeling that they can’t live and be happy unless they are constantly feeding a sexual appetite. That is a type of brainwashing in itself, that as men they are supposed to be perpetually hunting for sex and can’t be happy unless they constantly have it. I am glad that I was able leave the merry-go-round of sexual addiction. I feel more in control of my life and I am willing to date a nice man on a nice evening in a nice restaurant over desperate for sex Larry Craig-like moves in a public toilet. I may have found such a nice man on a ocean beach recently taking time to talk and to get to know someone.

I would rather take the time to talk to someone and to get to know him while at the beach and then at dinner. To get to be a part of another man’s life and part of his.

Sorry, DaveW but sexual addiction and having nothing more that find him, feel him, use him and then throw him away isn’t working for a lot of men.

When is sex juvenile? I know people are uncomfortable and this just reminds me that we have a big issue to confront: sex is taboo and our sex is just to much for the simple minded religiously brainwashed that represent the opinion makers of society.

think about it: straights are afraid of sex! masturbation gives you pimples, your priest must be celibate, in some religions women must be covered else they invite sexual attack. Sex is original sin in our society!

How can we expect to win acceptance (a goal I detest…I shouldn’t have to care what people think, but since in this crazy country we vote on rights, I have to)….if the people we need acceptance from don’t accept their own sexuality.

I am not religious and I see our sexuality as a natural, evolution provided characteristic that we ignore at our peril. Look at what happens to children when we repress sexuality. Look at what happens to families when we deny youthful sex and wait…only to be dissapointed…for marriage.

We are made to have sex and lots of it. I wish we didn’t live in a society that is ashamed of that.

For if we were not the solution to this park and cruising issues nationwide is to set up fee based cruising parks. Pay a buck to the city parks commission and go inside and play ’til your heart’s content.

What is the big deal? It is how we are wired.

But no, in Maine the answer is to close all highway rest areas…all of them….to the detriment of travelers that actually want to use the bathroom to pee.