FLORIDA: Park sex bill could destroy lives of innocent gay men

forward: We believe people who have sex in the bushes in public parks are engaging in tasteless and infantile behavior.

Making public sex a felony is another step toward a prison state.

With 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, far ahead of communist China,Russia and Iran. Three jurisdictions in Florida — the city of Jacksonville and Polk and Pinellas counties — rank in the top 10 for highest incarceration rates in the United States, according to a recent report by the Justice Policy Institute.

If the bill is passed, anyone arrested for engaging in sexual conduct in a public park or on a public beach could face felony charges. In fact, the bill makes it a felony to engage in "unnatural or lascivious acts" with another person in or within 1,000 feet of a public park, a public beach, a community center, a child- care facility or a school. Engaging in sexual conduct in a park are on a beach is currently a misdemeanor.

The bill does not define "unnatural and lascivious," so one wonders whether two guys kissing in a park or holding hands would be considered "unnatural." The bill also makes no stipulation about children having to be present in the area of the offense in order for a felony charge to be leveled.

There are many problems with this bill — as well as with the enforcement of " lewd and lascivious laws" with so-called "sting" operations — that should sound alarm bells not only in the gay community but for anyone who cares about protecting the rights of innocent people to be free from harassment and the threat of false arrest.

First of all, we have seen numerous times that it is not necessary to actually engage in any sexual behavior to fall prey to these laws and sting operations. For example, a Boca Raton priest was arrested in a park restroom in North Carolina last September for simply asking a man,who turned out to be an undercover officer, to go home with him and have sex. The priest, whom I won't name because he has been embarrassed enough,was charged with "soliciting for a crime against nature" and he lost his job.

In a more recent example that hits closer to home, Patrick Neptune, a freelance photographer, told the New Times that he was stalked and terrorized by gun-wielding Fort Lauderdale police officers on Feb. 22. According to Neptune, his "crime" was that he had decided to go to the beach in the wee hours of the morning to photograph a sunrise.He was waiting outside his car for the sun to rise when a black sports car with an undercover office spotted him and apparently assumed that he was at the beach cruising for gay sex. Neptune told the New Times that the black sports car followed him to a BP gas station,where a bearded undercover officer got out of the car and pointed a gun at him. Other officers in a marked car joined the bearded officer, and the bearded officer asked Neptune if he was out "cruising for cock," according to Neptune. He was not arrested, but Neptune has filed a complaint against the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

And who can forget the situation at John Lloyd Park a few years ago when numerous gay men came forward and reported being harassed, cited for dubious trespassing violations and falsely arrested during a crackdown on sexual activity in the park. One gay man was charged with “indecent exposure” for wearing a white bathing suit that a park officer thought was not opaque enough.He was acquitted of the charge.

Another gay man, who had read newspaper articles about the alleged police harassment, was arrested for simply stating to an undercover officer, “Watch out. They’re arresting someone over there.” He is currently suing the state for false arrest.

But possibly the most compelling reason to kill HB 801 is that public sex is not an increasing problem; the police data show it is, in fact, a diminishing phenomenon as more gay men seek anonymous encounters through internet chat rooms and at bathhouses.

For those of us who have no desire to cruise for public sex but love to exercise and enjoy the serenity of parks, it is dish e a rtening to see them turned into mini police states just to pacify the petty neuroses of a few right-wing prudes. It appears that every gay man in this town is now treated like a suspect as soon as he walks into a park or onto a beach.

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