<p>hmmmm…I just realized my husband rides bikes with a whole lot of men and they all wear tight, sometimes shiny, spandex pants and tight shirts. Sometimes they zip the shirts down so their chest hair is showing. Should I be worried???</p>
<p>I’d only be worried if they * shaved* their chest hair- but then again do they have a bear sticker?
[url=<a href=“http://www.bosf.org/]HOME[/url”>http://www.bosf.org/]HOME[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I guess there should be concern for male competitive swimmers. Speedo’s and shaved smooth.</p>
<p>my H used to shave his legs( well just on his calves 
) cause his ski boots fit so snug they ripped all the hair out.
ow</p>
<p>He didn’t wear some colorful ski jacket or silly knit cap, did he?</p>
<p>Boy, I probably hang out with the wrong crowd that does not equate “dating” with random hookups for sex (or paid sex). :rolleyes: So you guys are OK with pimps and prostitutes taking over our public places? That was the point of my post: a strangely dressed guy (or two or even a crowd) on a public trail does not warrant a 911 call (otherwise, here in my city 911 phone lines would be ringing constantly ;)), however, repeated sightings of sexual encounters by random people in the bushes in a public park where families with children hike - yeah, I’d call the police and ask for their advice.</p>
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<p>according to the OP, there haven’t actually been ANY sightings of sexual encounters - or of families with children! ;)</p>
<p>I seem to recall that the OP’s original post was concerned about a dog and its owners.</p>
<p>I just returned last night from a very pleasant weekend up in the Berkshires with my son, and came across this thread. Interesting.</p>
<p>What bothers me most is the OP’s assertion, based on nothing at all so far as I can tell, that there’s a “good chance” that a child in that park would encounter gay men having sex with each other. Since the OP herself didn’t see that or anything close to it, what in the world justifies that statement?</p>
<p>I would hope that any gay men actually having sex in that park – as opposed to using it as a place to meet other gay men, which I’d like to think the OP wouldn’t find objectionable – would do it well off the paths, in a secluded spot where nobody would be likely to encounter them.</p>
<p>Of course, the OP hasn’t exactly defined what kind of gay sex she would be offended to see. Would it bother her to see two gay men making out on a blanket in the middle of a lawn? If so, does she object to seeing a straight couple doing that – something one can see out in the open on any nice day in probably any park in the country? Somehow, nobody seems to be interested in calling the cops about the possibility that little Johnny and Suzy might see that. But two men or two women making out in public? It’s Sodom and Gomorrah!</p>
<p>In any event, the phenomenon of gay men cruising public places (I don’t see why “■■■■■■■■” has to be used) to meet other men for casual sex, either there or elsewhere – a phenomenon that I hope people realize had its roots in societal homophobia, not in any inherent desire of gay men to have public sex – is slowly but surely dying out. It’s been years since I’ve heard anything about the Ramble, after all. (The last time may have been when Dick Button got mugged there, quite a long time ago now.) By the way, the one time in my life that I was walking around Central Park and accidentally ended up there, I was, I think, in my teens or early twenties. I realized where I was because, you guessed it, I noticed that there were a lot of men by themselves standing or walking on the paths. Did I feel unsafe? Not the least little bit. I simply left. No big deal. I’ve never felt unsafe around gay men, whether they were alone or in groups. When I think of the reasons I probably wouldn’t want to walk through Central Park after dark, unless I were headed to a play or concert there, encountering gay men (doing anything) would most certainly not be one of them. </p>
<p>Why is the phenomenon dying out? One word: the Internet. According to my son, that’s where most gay men go to meet each other now. Just like straight people.</p>
<p>“according to the OP, there haven’t actually been ANY sightings of sexual encounters.”</p>
<p>Maybe not sex acts, but I’d bet that with just a little bit of effort you could easily see men playing leapfrog or guys having other guys take a really close look at their belt buckles.</p>
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<p>Sorry Donna, it does not matter if it is Johnny and Suzy or Johnny and Jimmy or Jenny and Suzy having a little “encounter” on the blanket - sex in public, any kind, is equally disgusting in my books.</p>
<p>I agree. (Although I think I’d describe it as “embarrassing,” not “disgusting.”) But, as I said before, how do you define “sex”? Are you seriously suggesting that you’ve never seen a straight couple making out in a public park? If you did see that happening, did you call the cops?</p>
<p>I kinda liked the matronly lady’s response to Sally’s “orgasm” at Katz’s deli in When Sally Met Harry–“I’ll have one of what she’s having!”</p>
<p>I’m not saying that it warrants calling the cops. I’m saying it is disgusting. I’m also not saying that our OP needed to call the cops because of her sighting of strangely dressed guys on that trail. However, if that park were indeed breeding grounds for prostitution (we don’t know, I’m saying “if”), that would require some action and a clean up plan.</p>
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<p>DonnaL,
I’ve never heard anyone refer to “making out,” by which I assume you mean mouth-to-mouth intercourse, as “having sex.”</p>
<p>What are we comfortable seeing in a family friendly park? couples? couples holding hands? Kissing? a peck? an embrace? Do we have a different comfort level when the couple is two men? Almost always, out with my husband, we’re hand in hand and sometimes “pecking” and I sure hope we are not offending anyone.</p>
<p>I’m really, really conservative (ya think?) and easily shocked. Earlier this summer, a young couple was in my office cafeteria standing on the sandwich line and the guy was standing behind the woman actually, pardon the expression, humping her. I was absolutely shocked. Hands over the heart, gasping for breath shocked. I would be uncomfortable seeing any couple making out in a public place. I wouldn’t necessarily notice a preponderance of men in a park.</p>
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<p>Whatever you and the majority of people on CC are comfortable with doing in front of their own children. Kissing and holding hands is PG rated stuff so it would be OK for family friendly places. I think even G rated movies have princes kissing princesses. ;)</p>
<p>zm - :eek: I would have told them to get a room!</p>
<p>I do not have a problem with two men or two women holding hands and “pecking”. Otherwise, I would have never survived in my town for 20 years ;)</p>
<p>@Bay</p>
<p>I’ve… never heard of someone call it mouth-to-mouth intercourse. “Making Out” is pretty much the staple, “mouth-to-mouth intercourse” sounds like some prudish comment someone made up</p>
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<p>I actually did make up “mouth-to-mouth intercourse.” I was trying to describe what “making out” means to me, and that seemed like the most efficient description I could come up with. “Kissing” seemed too prissy for how some couples seem to devour each other when they share saliva. I thought about “mouth-to-mouth penetration,” but then that didn’t include no-tongue kissing.</p>
<p>Is “intercourse” a prudish term now? I think of it as fairly clinical.</p>