Sneaky rangers invade nudists privacy

Some cruisers and nudists who visit Cape Cod National Seashore to participate in their favorite recreational activities are angry that park rangers are using sneaky tactics to catch them breaking the law (namely engaging in public sex and nude sunbathing).

Undercover tactics: Park criticized for using sneak approach to nab nudists, stop sex (Provincetown Banner)

Nudists,amorous couples and others who used the Seashore as their pleasure ground this summer were shocked when they were served $75 to $175 citations for baring their bodies and/or engaging in sexual acts in public. It was not the tickets that bothered them so much as the manner in which they received them. "It was crossing the line as far as I am concerned," said Susie Maguire, a summer visitor. Maguire said she and a friend were walking up South Pamet Road in Truro on July 27, fully dressed, when a young park ranger drove up in his truck. “He got out, walked down to us and as he was walking said, ‘You two just hold it right there. I’m giving you a ticket for public nudity.’” The ranger proceeded to ticket Maguire for having been nude on the beach earlier that afternoon. She had, indeed, been sunbathing in the buff for three hours in an isolated spot south of Ballston Beach. But how had the ranger seen her? Was he “peeping” from the dunes? Why had he waited until she and her friend had walked all the way back to the parking lot and up the road to their car before approaching them? Maguire said she had been asking herself these questions. “When I have something like that happen, I’ve been invaded,” she said. “He wasn’t nasty at all, he was a very nice guy. But the whole thing was bizarre.”

She is not upset that the park ranger wrote her a ticket for being nude in public, just that he saw her naked. Now let me get this straight. She went to a public beach, removed all of her clothing and then sunbathed naked for three hours. If she is bothered by the idea of someone "invading" her privacy by at her naked body, then maybe she should not get naked in public. Just a thought.

She was not the first beachgoer to be caught off guard by a ranger. One man, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he and his partner were dallying in the reeds in a remote spot near Herring Cove in Provincetown one day last month when suddenly a park ranger sprang upon them. The ranger was in plainclothes and had appeared to be just “another gay man” ambling by, which is one of the reasons why the man and his partner didn’t stop having sex. They were given a $175 ticket for disorderly conduct.

That's not fair! If that poor guy had know that he was a police officer, then he would have stopped breaking the law. When I am out on patrol, I always announce my presence with a loud, "Park ranger coming through. I hope no one is engaging in any illegal activities out here." That's the only fair way for a ranger to patrol.

Other visitors to Herring Cove have reported seeing undercover park rangers, dressed as though they were just there to enjoy the beach, stop and ticket people for nudity or sexual activity. “I observed this practically the whole summer,” said Ron Raz, a New York resident who comes to Provincetown often. He said there were four plainclothes rangers, two in T-shirts, khaki shorts and carrying backpacks and the other two in “just shorts,” one with “pierced nipples and everything.” He said the undercover rangers will comb the beach between the breakwater and the parking lot at Herring Cove, which is “mostly the gay guys’ beach.” Sometimes, “they’ll just sit and wait.” When a man makes a move on the undercover rangers, they ticket him or serve a summons. Raz said it seemed like entrapment to him. “I would see people leaving the beach in tears,” he said.

There is nothing more sad than a horny guy that just wants to go to the beach and have some gay sex out in public and is senselessly harassed by some jack booted park ranger.

Cruising through the park looking for a toe tapping good time

The recent onslaught of news coverage about Idaho Senator Larry Craig's arrest for soliciting sex in a public restroom by tapping his foot has exposed the secret world of cruising for sex in public places. Apparently most people were not aware that many gay men visit public restrooms and parking lots to hook-up with anonymous sex partners. In the gay community such behavior is commonly known as "cruising". Parks and restrooms where gay men can easily find other men looking for sex are called a "cruisy parks" and "cruisy toilets."

Park rangers that have the pleasure of working in a cruisy park are usually quite aware that such activity is occurring. I was lucky enough to work in a cruisy park for several years. During that time I had to clean up a variety of items left in restrooms by careless cruisers, including used condoms, sexual lubricant, pornographic magazines and even sex toys. I had male park visitors complain about being hit on by male cruisers. One time a female birdwatcher photographed a naked man pleasuring himself in the woods. She thought it would be funny to embarrass her fiends by showing them a photo of the nude hiker that she ran into. After looking at the picture on her computer monitor, however, the bird watcher realized that this man was enjoying himself much more than he was enjoying nature.

Cruising for Sex
How do you know if people are cruising in your park?
Apparently, the internet has become a prime resource for sexual information (who knew?). Currently the most popular cruising websites are CruisingForSex.com and Squirt.org. Warning: These sites are NSFW (Not Safe For Work) because they are full of gay porn (who knew?). Warning: If you are a fan of the TV show Will and Grace and you have never seen gay porn before, then do not go to these websites or you will never be able to enjoy the show again.

To find out if you work in a cruisy park, just search for the park name to see if it is a popular meeting place. Squirt.org requires that you fill out and verify your registration before you can read any detailed listings. Warning: It may be difficult to explain to your wife why you had to setup an account on a gay sex website.

Ranger Gord's Cruisy Toilet Cleaning Tips
Here are some tips if you are a park ranger who has the unfortunate task of cleaning up after some messy cruisers:

• There is no such thing as wearing too many surgical gloves, but after about six pair, you start to lose your ability to grab things with one hand.


• The Center for Disease Control recommends using a 10% bleach/90% water solution when sanitizing surfaces that have been exposed to body fluids. I recommend an 90% bleach/10 % acetone solution. Warning: Make sure you take a deep breath of fresh air before you spray because this solution has a tendency to dissolve lung tissue when it is inhaled.

Why?
If you are wondering why men act like this, then check out this documentary where they interview several cruisers and film them on cruising escapades. Warning: Although there is no nudity or sexually explicit scenes, does feature several gay men talking about sex.

Enchanted Forest

Enchanted Forest

Documentary exploring the underground world of cruising

Ohio ranger finds Love in an outhouse

Ohio state park ranger's seeking to discourage the use of park restrooms as places for men to meet for casual sexual activities found minister William Love in a stall "loving" himself. In an effort to protect his reputation, minister Love pleaded innocent. Apparently, Love suffers from a medical condition which requires him to massage his penis for up to ten minutes in order to urinate (not to be confused with uromysitisis, the aliment Jerry Seinfeld was afraid of contracting if he did not urinate in a public garage). Amazingly, the jury did not believe his explaination of the incident. This is one that you have to read to believe.

Minister convicted of public indecency (The Athens NEWS)

In a trial outcome Friday that apparently stunned members of an Athens church congregation, a Hocking County jury convicted the church's pastor of committing public indecency in a state park lavatory on May 15.

"Oh, no," blurted out one audience member in the packed courtroom, as the jury foreman in Hocking County Municipal Court read out the guilty verdict against 57-year-old H. Willard Love, senior minister of the Athens Church of Christ.

One young woman in the audience burst into tears, and could be seen outside the courtroom later, sobbing inconsolably.

Love was arrested after he allegedly masturbated in front of an undercover park ranger in the restroom at the spillway of Lake Logan State Park, off U.S. Rt. 33. After deliberating more than an hour and a half Friday, a four-man, four-woman jury found him guilty despite Love's having put on a vigorous defense in which he portrayed his arrest as the result of a misunderstanding by the arresting officer.

Judge Richard M. Wallar fined Love $500 and court costs (which will probably be much more than the fine), and sentenced him to serve three days in jail and 14 eight-hour days of community service.

Hocking County assistant prosecutor David Sams didn't ask for a specific sentence, though he did tell Wallar that park rangers have had a longstanding problem with sexual activity at the Lake Logan restroom, and that "they have a legitimate interest in sending a message" that such offenses will be treated seriously.

Defense attorney K. Robert Toy asked Wallar not to give his client jail time, noting that Love has no prior criminal record and is a respected clergyman. "Mr. Love is a great asset to our community," Toy argued. "There is no sense in putting him in jail."

Wallar, however, gave Love 60 days in jail, with 50 days suspended. He gave him the options of serving 10 days behind bars, or doing three days plus community service, of which Love chose the latter.

Sams said later that if Love had pled to the charge against him - a third-degree misdemeanor - he could probably have been given a small fine, as other men arrested the same day for public indecency at the restroom were. By choosing to fight the charge at trial, however, Sams said, Love opened himself up to a harsher penalty if convicted.

"It's rather common that if someone goes through a trial and testifies, and the jury comes back and says they didn't believe the testimony, that (the defendant gets) some jail time," he explained.

Love said he must confer with Toy as to whether he wants to appeal the verdict, but continued to insist he did nothing illegal in the park restroom on the morning of May 15.

"I know I'm innocent, (but) I respect the court," he declared. "And I appreciate all the support that the community has given me. We did our best to go to trial to try to prove our innocence."

IN THE TRIAL, the state relied on the testimony of two rangers from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and a tape made of a brief exchange in the restroom between Love and one of the rangers, who was in plainclothes and wearing a hidden microphone.

The defense called as witnesses Love, his wife, and his doctor.

The rangers told a story in which Love entered the empty restroom, and when officer Jeremy T. Davis entered behind him in plainclothes, found Love "massaging his penis back and forth very, very rapidly with his right hand." When Davis struck up a conversation with Love, he testified, Love continued to masturbate in front of him, and made statements suggesting he might want to leave with the officer and go to the second man's residence.

Love offered a wholly different explanation for what was heard on the surveillance tape. He readily admitted that when Davis entered the lavatory, he, Love, was massaging his genitals, but said he often has to do this in order to urinate, because of a medical condition he has suffered for many years. (Love's wife confirmed this in her testimony.)

The minister explained the suspicious-sounding comments he made to Davis by saying he became frightened that Davis planned to do him harm. He noted that the undercover officer struck up a conversation while standing behind him, out of plain view and blocking his exit from the restroom, then let about 30 seconds go by without saying anything. After this, he said, Davis made the observation that he didn't see anyone else around, which made Love even more uneasy.

At this point, Love testified, he looked around to locate the officer, initially couldn't find him, and then was shocked to see Davis bent over, peering around a low dividing wall at Love's crotch with a "weird grin" on his face.

"I look around and he is bent over with his hands on his knees and his head is crooked around like this," he demonstrated. "I freaked out... I had never experienced anything in a public restroom like that."

Many of his comments to Davis, according to Love, such as asking him if he were married or if he had "a place" to go to nearby, were designed to keep the other man relaxed, with the aim of Love's getting out of the restroom and to his car. Love noted that he has experience as a counselor in dealing with people in tense situations, and has learned to speak calmly and parrot what the other person says.

"I'm just trying to get him to back off, so I just repeated what he said to me to get him to back off," he claimed. "I know if I can get to my car, I can get away from him... I just want to get away from this guy."

The prosecution, however, hammered on Love's comments to Davis such as "what are you looking for," "too bad you're not in Columbus," and "you got a place?" Love at one point on the tape also tells Davis that he doesn't like to meet people in public restrooms because "I just don't feel safe."

Sams also put heavy emphasis on a questionnaire Love answered for officers after his arrest in which he supposedly answered "yes" to two questions, one about whether he knew he had been engaging in a high-risk activity, and the other about whether he knew that men soliciting sexual activity in public restrooms have been assaulted and murdered.

Love admitted answering yes to both questions. However, he said, he did not hear the portion of the second question referring to sexual soliciting, and heard only the part about men being murdered in public restrooms. Having known someone in Athens this happened to, he said, he answered yes - and only found out afterwards that the question was phrased in such a way as to imply that he himself had been looking for sex in the restroom.

Love also noted that the officers never gave him the questionnaire to review, and that he never signed it to approve his answers.

ANOTHER POINT OF Sams' case was the question of why Love chose a smelly, open-pit lavatory some distance off the highway, rather than going to one of the closer businesses at the U.S. Rt. 33-Ohio Rt. 664 exit, or to a rest stop with flush toilets a little further up the highway.

Love explained that when he takes medication for a chronic sinus infection, which had flared up recently, he has a very difficult time urinating, and sometimes has to go to great lengths massaging his back, thighs or genitals to be able to pass water.

Both Love's wife, Phyllis Love, and his doctor, William Rankin, backed up Love's claim that when he takes medicine for a sinus infection - which he was suffering at the time of his arrest - he has great difficulty urinating.

Phyllis Love said her husband sometimes has to massage himself for a long time at home to urinate. "When he's in that condition, (it can take) at least 10 minutes, or even more," she said. "You would think that someone was trying to masturbate, but it's not that."

She also confirmed that the day of Love's arrest, the minister had a full and tightly scheduled agenda of pastoral visits, including trips to Nelsonville, Lancaster and Chillicothe. He was on his way to Lancaster when he stopped off to use the restroom.

Sams repeatedly questioned Love as to why he didn't choose a more convenient and modern bathroom, and Love repeatedly told him that he wanted someplace quiet and preferably empty of other people, because he knew he might have to make an extended effort to urinate. If the restroom didn't meet his requirements, he told the prosecutor, "it could be on the side of the road two feet behind the guardrail, and it wouldn't do me any good."

In his summation, Sams told the jury that he believes Love was legitimately out on church business on May 15 as the minister claimed, "but I don't doubt that he's looking for a quickie, either."

He acknowledged that nothing on the surveillance tape clearly records Love making a sexual proposal to the officer (which he wasn't charged with), but suggested that if the jury could read between the lines, it would conclude that that's what Love had in mind.

"He didn't cross that line to where he actually solicited sex from the officer, but you can see where they were headed," he said.

Man sues to lift dog ban...stranger than fiction

No one would be surprised to hear that a dog lover would sue to lift a dog ban, even if it was in a National Park. What is surprising is that the beach in question is a nude beach. What is even more surprising is that the man, Mark DelCore, a former bodybuilder,
claims that nude sunbathing is a medical treatment used to treat a
strange skin condition which was caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. If that wasn't enough, DelCore states that he needs to bring his dog, which he claims is a service animal, with him to his nude sunbathing treatments for "emotional support and comfort" due to his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which was also caused by 9/11.

Man Sues Over Naked Beach Beef (The Smoking Gun)

A New York man who says that he suffers from a debilitating skin condition and post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the September 11 attacks is suing for the right to have his rat terrier accompany him to a naked beach on Fire Island.

The lawsuit, a copy of which you'll find below, contends that while Fire Island National Seashore
officials will allow seeing eye dogs to accompany beachgoers, service dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Note to self: cancel my transfer request to Fire Island National Seashore.