Slog - Comments on Another Toilet Cruiser Busted http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted This time in North Carolina. The charge against a Boca Raton Episcopal priest who was arrested in a sex sting operation in a Waynesville, N.C. park restroom may violate his constitutional rights.... Fr. Michael Penland was charged on June 28 with “soliciting for a crime against nature” in Waynesville Recreation Park.... Who's coming to the defense of the reverend? Not the Episcopal church, which suspended Fr. Penland from his duties at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. It's the gays that are coming to his defense--"Bathroom sting violates priest’s rights, lawyers say," reads the headline in Florida's Express Gay... Copyright 2008 Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:32:26 -0800 Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:53:34 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by bma It’s about protecting straight men from the treatment they meat out to straight women.

You mean "mete"?

]]> bma http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806367 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806367 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:39:24 -0800 Comment by Chip @1: I think 'meat' is an awesome pun, deliberate or not.

]]> Chip http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806369 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806369 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:40:24 -0800 Comment by arandomdude @1 Damn, beet me to it.
Also yes, fitting. Though there seems to something wrong with "brand male piggishness" perhaps you were going for brash?

]]> arandomdude http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806377 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806377 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:52:25 -0800 Comment by GoodGrief It's a fair point, but legality/illegality aside, I don't think many straight men are propositioning women in restrooms (that guy at Qwest Field last year aside)? I would even say (maybe wrongly?) that most women feel reasonably secure from the unwanted advances of straight men while in the powder room?

What is it with the restrooms? Find a bar somewhere to work your silver-tongued magic...

Waynesville is in one of the stixier parts of what is a pretty stixy state...

]]> GoodGrief http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806386 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806386 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:57:42 -0800 Comment by tsm Yeah, this definitely seems like a different case than Craig's. Soliciting sex in a private location is not and should never be illegal.

On another note, it would seem that if the goal of cruisy toilet stings was really about curbing public sex, and not to shame gay men, then simply posting a policeman by the restroom for a while would be sufficient to scare away the cruisers without the hassle of arrest and trial. These aren't hardened criminals they're dealing with.

]]> tsm http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806396 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806396 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:06:21 -0800 Comment by UNPAID BLOGGER @4, i think the answer to your question should be obvious; if men and women shared restrooms, we'd see more of these types of solicitations from straight men... In fact, I'd wager it would dwarf the amount of gay solicitations EASILY.

]]> UNPAID BLOGGER http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806414 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806414 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:18:25 -0800 Comment by SDA in SEA Yeah, this is totally bullshit. While I personally find no desire to hit on guys in a bathroom, it isn't and shouldn't be illegal. If I'm simply propositioning a guy to go have sex at home (or a hotel or wherever), then it shouldn't matter if I hit on him in a bar, a grocery store line, or a bathroom. He can say no if he's not interested. He can't arrest me.

]]> SDA in SEA http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806427 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806427 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:25:15 -0800 Comment by Wowza @5, re that last line - well, maybe not upon ENTERING the bathroom...

]]> Wowza http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806440 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806440 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:37:01 -0800 Comment by ellarosa once this goes before a judge the case is over, right? there is actually no law broken. a judge would have to cite the law, and he would come up with nothing pin on this guy. isn't that how it works, even in the sticks?

]]> ellarosa http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806463 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806463 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:00:15 -0800 Comment by fribster Note that the crime he was accused of is solicitation of a crime against nature. This was not an arrest for a public or potentially public sex act. Welcome to North Carolina. See link below for an analysis of why these arrests continue to be made even after Lawrence.

http://www.ncgala.org/guide/guidecan.htm

]]> fribster http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806480 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806480 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:18:31 -0800 Comment by ellarosa from the above link: " Lawrence made clear that law enforcement officers may no longer arrest hetero- or homosexual people for CAN activity in private, but officers are still making CAN arrests for activity occurring in public as well as for solicitation to perform acts of CAN in public or in an unspecified place."

far as i can see, he still didn't violate this stupid law, because the place was specified, and it was a private place (which CAN allows). is the public solicitation itself the offense? if so, the law is not worded correctly for this. is any solicitation, even non-monetary, the offense? basic freedom of speech laws trump it. but that requires an appeal, i guess.

]]> ellarosa http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806530 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806530 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:05:48 -0800 Comment by duh #4: That is the whole REASON we have male and female bathrooms in the first place, so men won't hit on, harass, or otherwise assault women when they have their pants down.

If there were unisex bathrooms everywhere, you bet men would harass women in them all the time, rendering them unusuable to women at all.

This why they have women-only cars in the Japan subway.

]]> duh http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806800 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806800 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:22:25 -0800 Comment by duh Oops, the "duh" is on me, #6.

]]> duh http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806802 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806802 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:24:06 -0800 Comment by Aqua Let the gay witch hunts begin!

]]> Aqua http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806895 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c806895 Hetero Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:59:22 -0800 Comment by TwistedMister "It’s clear—beyond all reasonable doubt—that Larry Craig did intend to get it on in that toilet at the Minneapolis Airport."

Wrong. As the ACLU pointed out, the law has no idea what Larry Craig's intentions were (or any of the other men arrested in the Mnpls. Airport). And even if public sex was Craig's intention, since when do we arrest someone for their intentions? A law has to be broken before someone can be arrested and charged. Larry Craig, closeted asshole that he is, broke no laws.

]]> TwistedMister http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c807215 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/another_toilet_cruiser_busted#c807215 Hetero Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:53:34 -0800