Today the Agapepress gleefully reports homosexuals have been arrested for public sex at Richfield County Park in Michigan. Gary Glenn, the apparent head of the AFA Michigan has noticed a trend and is quoted:
Glenn observes an alarming trend in reports of such criminally lewd behavior. “I went back and looked over the records of the incidents of this kind of thing that I have in my files,” he says, “and it seems in almost every case, there are public school employees who are involved when there is an arrest made in a public park for men soliciting homosexual activity.”
Two similar instances occurred in southeast Michigan, and another happened in Pittsburgh in the last several years, the AFA-Michigan president notes — and in each case, he says, “public school employees were involved.”
Glenn does not offer up substantiation other than his vague collection of private files. The Agapepress continues it’s role as unquestioning mouthpiece of the bigoted and ignorant does nothing to question Glenn further. Let’s hear it again:
“I went back and looked over the records of the incidents of this kind of thing that I have in my files.”
“I have in my files…” Are they kidding me?
People buy this tripe? If anyone here doesn’t buy it and would care to share some thoughts with the author Jim Brown or Gary Glenn just click on their names.
“Public school employees” envolved, hmmmm?
I’ll bet they are ostensibly “married ‘Heterosexuals,'” too!
I’ll also bet there is a representative sampling of private / parochial school employees for what its worth.
How inconvenient for agape to leave out the whole story.
Have you ever noticed that so many of the groups with “Family” in their name are lead by guys with remarkably similar looks. They all seem to be incredibly smug balding chubby pinkish or redish white guys.
I guess Jesus hates Rogain, Propecia, diets, and olive complections as much as he hates the homos.
Public sex is wrong from straights and gays, but I do feel that this news report is unfair and wrong. Is it possible that those arrested felt they could not be public because of their jobs so they go to illegal places? I do not know any gay person who has gone to a park or public place. I tend to think it is a very small group of people who do this. There is a park near my place where two people were arrested recently–an evangelical minister and an evangelical father (both heterosexual supposedly–with gay lapses). People should be arrested for public sex, but I do think it is fair to be empathetic why someone might do it.
Urgh, am I missing something here?People are being arrested (and Glenn wants them fired from their employment) for “soliciting homosexual activity”?Not — notice — being caught in the act in the park. Post Lawrence v. Texas, how can someone be arrested for merely trawling around hoping to get engaged in a completely legal activity?I also doubt these people — undoubtably well known as heterosexual fathers and church goers — were arrested at a time that any self-respecting family with children were using the park. Are midnight picnics and frisbees popular in Michigan these days?Best solution: better lighting. Nothing like several thousand watts to move people on to a more private locale!(This being Michigan, I guess this is not an issue in winter… although I am mindful of Churchill’s wonderful comment about the guardsmen.)
It’s a typical beat up from Glenn.From the Flint Journal June 15:We had a chance to be pretty clear and aware of where each of us stood and what our motivations are, [Triangle Foundation] said. In our case, it’s advocating for some of these men. We certainly came away with a level of respect for where [the Sherrif is] coming from on this and what his motivation is. I take him at his word that he’s been responding to some citizens’ concerns.From the Flint Journal June 16:[The Sherrif] has said he sent officers to the county park in Richfield Township after receiving complaints about men approaching other men about having sex in the park. Triangle’s president has warned that such stings can be a form of entrapment, but he said after meeting [the Sherrif] on Tuesday that the sheriff’s response has been “an appropriate, moderate response to the situation.”So, the local gay activists don’t have an issue with people being arrested (for whatever they were doing at the time, and on that I’m not sure). The Triangle Foundation supports the actions of the police. However — more alarming —Deputies and park rangers in plainclothes waited in the park until they were propositioned for sex by those ticketed, Pickell has said.Propositioned? So?I wonder if the “public complaints” that initiated the sting were made by Glenn and others within the AFA?
One might seriously want to ask how many of these people having sex in the park were married, with children. I prefer to have sex on a mattress, not on a tree root, but I tend to doubt that, if I were married, with children, my wife would like it if I had brought men home to have sex with in our bedroom.
If I were a betting man, I would almost be willing to wager that a significant portion of the people who were caught having sex al fresco were married with children. And so, to all intents and purposes, apparently straight.
People are being arrested (and Glenn wants them fired from their employment) for “soliciting homosexual activity”?
Not — notice — being caught in the act in the park. Post Lawrence v. Texas, how can someone be arrested for merely trawling around hoping to get engaged in a completely legal activity?
Sadly, this is still happening in a number of places – including Detroit, where police were basically entrapping guys into soliciting sex and then arresting them, even when the sex was to take place in private.
I still wonder…What particular by-law or whatever is used against these men? I mean, if some Pamela Anderson (c)(DuPont) came up and made some straight guy a freely given offer he couldn’t refuse; whould she be arrested in the first place, and under charge?It’s not as if she’s offering drugs or money-for-a-little-lovin’ — she’s asking someone if they, of their own free will, wish to go home and do the (totally legal) wild thang.It cannot be a by-law against simply pestering people — if it was, I’m moving to Michigan and having every flippin’ Evangelical arrested!!!
raj says, “If I were a betting man, I would almost be willing to wager that a significant portion of the people who were caught having sex al fresco were married with children. And so, to all intents and purposes, apparently straight.”
Considering the number of high-profile ex-gays who have been caught engaging in such activity (i.e., sneaking around for sex with men on the sly), I would also wager that quite a number of them are ex-gay as well.
Oh, and for the person who asked via email…I’m doing this off the top of my head, but the episode is accurate:In the early 1950’s, when Churchill was Prime Minister for the second time, an aide came through first thing in the morning and alerted the P.M. to a possible public scandal… two guardsmens had been arrested — in congress — in St James Park the night before.(The Life Guards are the senior British regiment, and provide the security for the Royal family. St James Park is a stones throw from Buckingham Palace, and spitting distance from the Household Cavalry where the Life Guards were based at that time).Churchill turned, and asked archly”Coldest night in 50 years wasn’t it last night?””Urgh, yes, I believe it was, Prime Minister”…pause from Churchill”Make’s you proud to be British, doesn’t it!”Too funny, but then… Churchill did go to Harrow…
Just to let you know, a few years ago the police in Johnston, RI targetted an “adult” bookstore that was an environment in which people would have homosex. There was a bust there (it didn’t involve me), that was publicized by the Providence Journal. More than a few of the people were married, with children. And at least one person, married, committed suicide.
These things really do have real world repercussions.
From what I have seen, again anecdotally, out gay people are almost never involved in arrests of this sort. There is usually some sort of pretext, which can disolve in court. It seems that this is done more to scare off wanna be gays, or straights who have gay sex.
No one else has mentioned it, but “public school employees” are unionized. Strike one. They are, much more often than not, politically progressive. Strike two. And, of course as EVERYONE knows, gay teachers “recruit” our children into their “lifestyle.”
Strike four, there are a lot of public school teachers to begin with. Teaching employs huge numbers of people. So that they are involved here does not seem surprising. There are so many that teachers show up everywhere.
Jay, just to give you a bit of perspective, I was in public school in the 1960s when the NEA moved to being a union. I also know that public school teachers were severely underpaid, given their level of education. There is a historical context to this, that is often ignored. The world did not begin yesterday, which a number of conservatives apparently wish to ignore.