Fifteen Minutes: What Can I Get for Five Dollars?

A self-proclamation: Cruisingfor-sex.com is a website "dedicated to helping men around the world connect for sexual pleasure." The site's main resource is an extensive list of hotspots across America and around the world where gay men can anonymously meet to get it on. If a spot is frequented and deemed a good spot to "cruise," it is considered "cruisy." Beckoning back to the bath houses of the 70s, the site professes that the new gay hotspots are on college campuses. Cruising on college campuses "is a phenomenon that is so vast in practice that it became essential to separate it from the larger Sex Listings due to space limitations." So vast in fact, that the site includes our very own school.

Harvard is noted for its "cruisy" bathrooms in Lamont library and the science center, and the showers at the Maulkin Athletic Center (past 7pm). One e-mail listed on the site from October 1999 reports that "There are gloryholes in every stall on the third and fifth floor" of the Lamont bathrooms and that they are "very discreet.". Another warns readers that the basement of the science center is "always busy. Too busy", and recommends the "isolated 8th floor men's room" instead. Tired of Harvard? The Boston listings are quite extensive, taking 27 seconds to scroll through. The info is followed by two short lines warning readers that sex at any of the places is illegal.

Bolded in the main directory, the Garage is listed as having a "cruisy toilet in basement." FM went on location to check it out. When Dan, an employee of Newbury Comics, was asked if he had seen anything suspicious in the bathroom, he replied, "No, but I could see how someone would put that on [the site]. It is not a very well traveled bathroom." One employee at Starbucks claimed that she is not allowed to comment; however, she did protect her coffee superchain employer by stating that Starbucks has no affiliation with the toilet. According to Brian from Video Pros, the bathroom only opened a little over a year ago. He commented that opening the bathroom "just encourages that type of stuff." Crystal an employee of Cool Beans claimed, "we've seen lots of boys and girls in the girls room. They congregate there," but knew nothing of the men's room.

No real facts could be gleaned from the Garage employees about illegal rendevous in the basement bathroom; but the Pit kids who frequent the Garage had their own light to shed. When, Jason Tiplitz a Curry College undergraduate heard about sex in the bathroom of the Garage, he said, "we have a couple of friends who have done that, but they are heterosexual." His homosexual friend Bryan Campbell added, "I've been approached there before."

Information about "cruising spots" is collected from e-mail messages that the site's patrons send in While this adds a personal element, it also casts doubt on the site's accountability. Anna Baldwin, an officer of the BGLTSA says, "I'm not sure at all whether or not such a cruising culture actually exists on this campus." However, Mike Hill a co-chair of the BGLTSA claims, "I do know that in the late 70's and early 80's Lamont and the science center were very cruisy." When asked to comment on Harvard's place in cruisingforsex.com, Hill expressed his concern that "people will read this and unfairly generalize to the whole gay population." "People have to remember that the gay population is at heterogeneous as the straight population."

For now, reports of these types of gay activities on campus lean more towards fiction than fact. However, the shock factor is still there. Sex in the stacks or not, this is new and more exciting news. Happy Cruising.

--S.E. Silver