"Desperate to focus on anything other than competently running a railroad, Amtrak made news this fall by arresting a couple hundred men for "public lewdness" in Penn Station, the implication being that they were cruising the bathrooms there for sex. This caused a minor uproar. New York's Rep. Jerry Nadler sent a letter demanding Amtrak, "Cease ... targeting members of the LGBTQ community ... on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation.""
"For the uninitiated, cruising, in a broad sense, refers to seeking out anonymous sex. In a narrower sense, which is the focus here, it refers to seeking out sex in public or semipublic spaces. This can be conflated with indecent exposure in the public imagination, but it's not the same. With cruising, the goal is not so much to be seen as to have sex in a public setting (bathroom, wooded park, rest stop) without anyone else knowing."
Amtrak arrested around two hundred men at Penn Station on charges framed as public lewdness, prompting complaints that enforcement targeted LGBTQ people. Political leaders and commentators characterized the action as discriminatory and likened it to historical police entrapment of gay men. Cruising is defined as seeking anonymous sex, often in public or semipublic spaces, distinct from indecent exposure because the intention is consensual sex without being observed. Cruising emerged historically because discrimination limited private options. Contemporary encounters include social media attention and renewed legal and civil-rights concerns about policing and community impact.
Read at Slate Magazine
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