Isn't this about the time that the "To Catch a Predator" guy shows up?

Whatever. Like she's seen any action in the last three decades. She should have walked up and paid them.

As a straight someone who used to sneak away in parks with girlfriends during high school to steal a shag, I'm confident in saying that way more straight people have sex in parks than semi-closeted gays cruising bathrooms.

Would the West-Seattle grandmother have been as shocked to find a straight couple having sex in a park? Doubtful. Would it have made the news? No way, José. The story seems more a testament to her homophobia (or KOMOs) and shock than she might have to explain what "gay" means to her grandchild, rather than about the grand "problem" of gay people — or straight people — fucking in parks.

Geez louise. I work in a park and this stuff NEVER happens here--well, at least during the daytime when I'm at work. I'm not saying I *want* it to happen, but from all the news accounts you'd figure I'd have at least run into somebody doing something!

But at least we have shirtless joggers and sunbathers. . .

I wonder if people are ever going to stop writing that "shocked -- shocked!" thing that's so annoyingly ubiquitous these days? Maybe when they also stop writing "I threw up in my mouth a little bit"?

I'd like to throw up in your mouth, twee.

twee, that'll happen when people stop including gratuitous ECB and Mudede slams in their posts.

This is almost as shocking as people using cell phones at the airport...

What they did in Johnson City, TN was horrible with the photo line up in the newspaper identifying the park sex dudes by name and address. However, enough is enough and maye something much less severe would have the desired effect. Get a room or do it in a van! That granny should get herself a good digital camera with great zoom capabilites, start taking pics of the guys going in for sex, putting up their faces on a website, and maybe label it "Perverts of Westcrest Park" of something. Just that alone might clean it up.

Are there no Adult video stores with "preview" booths it Seattle? That's where all the closeted gays go for hook ups around here.

The woman says the park is more like a motel for gay men. There have been three times now while walking the trails with her dog she's caught men in the act...The third time, her 3-year-old grandson saw it too.

The mayor of Fort Lauderdale is taking some political hits because of his stance against public sex--thinking, probably, that this would be like saying you support puppies and sick children with cancer. He was wrong.

Some people can't separate their private fetishes from public discourse. Take gun control, for example. And please.

I have to agree with clarkj @3 - parks are wonderful places ...

Reasonable expectation of privacy, at noon in a public park? What kind of park, again? PUBLIC PARK. Go fuck somewhere else.

Dan's being reasonable here, but too many others are trying way too hard to defend the indefensible.

And the notion that more heterosexual sex is going on in public parks and restrooms than same-sex action (regardless of how people "identify" themselves) is laughable. Nobody really believes that.

Only sick straight Christians would want to have outdoor sex in a park. This is yet another example of the perversion of Christianity.

Jews simple would never think of having sex outdoors in a park. Judaism is the world's most open religion to gay men. Even Orthodox Jewish men can be gay and are loved and accepted.

If she saw men fucking twice before, in the same park, why was she taking her grandson for a walk there?

Fnarf, meet me at Volunteer Park in one hour. Bring a plunger.

If only there were some sort of gay-specific bars in the Seattle area where gay men could meet each other. Ah, well.

Look, it's not an issue of being shocked or not. It's just unpleasant if you're out on a walk by yourself, with your dog, with your child, with your mother, etc., and encountering public sex. It's also unpleasant to encounter someone strung out on whatever drug when you're walking down the street. It's unpleasant to to smell urine when walking past certain alleys. And it's unpleasant to step in dog shit on the sidewalk. None of these things shock me. They are just unpleasant things, and so let's get the park mungers indoors or in fenced-in munger parks (cf. dog parks), let's get the drug addicts some treatment, let's make public toilets available to the toiletless, and let's beat senseless people who fail to clean up their dogs' shit.

i think touring @11 is being facetious, fnar @ 11. right, touring?

i meant "fnarf @14"

i doubt a 3 year is scarred from seeing public sex unless grandma reminds him over & over that what he saw was bad.

i can't remember a goddamn thing from when i was 3.

4? that's different.

I think my first real memory is from when I was 3.

My main point was that the woman kept coming back again and again - the last time with her grandson. This is like a 6,200 acre park so it was almost like she went in seeking a controversy. These are not necessarily exhibitionists. They want to be visible enough to “hook up” but most would much rather do their thing completely hidden from view but out in public. Personally I see nothing exciting about having sex in public but some find it very exhilarating and they become so addicted to it they often miss work, school, and life at home with their family and kids. There are sex addiction programs to actually help these people.

Or ... maybe she's older and she likes to go by places with flowers and nearby bathrooms ...

You don't know.

I don't think Grandma needs to present any reasons for why she wants to visit a public park.

Poe, I'm not really a plunger man; I prefer my 50-foot rotary snake with clog-busting screw action.

Gay forest sex? I am totally schlocked!!!!11!one!! meh

Really, there's nothing like a fine Turkish carpet or a bed, even.

There's some middle ground here, unfortunately it's covered with used condoms and shitty toilet paper from the idiots who use the park for sex but don't clean up after themselves!!! I'm a gay man and have no problem with park sex in a huge park like Westcrest, with many secluded areas to hide and screw around in. I DO have a problem with the disgusting mess and filthy litter left behind, though, and can only imagine what a straight person coming upon said mess must think...something along the lines of "Dirty faggots..."

But, Granny, it's an excellent observation made by others that it flies in the face of common sense that you would walk through that same area of the park again, especially with the kid along. C'mon, Myrtle, you'd had this horrific experience TWICE before, so you went back and risked seeing it a THIRD time??? Methinks you are looking for trouble. Westcrest IS a huge park and the activities that so offend you are pretty well confined to the section you seem obsessed with traversing.

My advice to the boys in the trees is clean up your mess, you're fouling your own nest and creating problems for yourself.

My advice to Granny is avoid the cruisy part of the park, explore the many other acres of lush flora and fauna and stop creating problems for yourself. Oh, and if the kid ever asks about what he saw (unlikely at best) just tell him it's as much a part of Nature as the flora and fauna we all love.