For the fifth year, advocates marched across Brooklyn Bridge for Marriage Equality. Yet this event was different.
Majority Leader Dean Skelos attended Log Cabin’s fall fundraiser, where he backed the first openly gay Senate hopeful, John Chromczak.
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By Joelle L. Quartini
Friday, June 20, 2008
Fire Island’s notorious Meat Rack has seen a lot of action this month. Five citations have been issued for public sex in the wooded area that separates the mostly gay communities of Cherry Grove and The Pines.
Park rangers’ intrusion onto the secluded and famed cruising grounds has Fire Islanders’ panties in a bunch, with one group planning a “Circle Jerk for Freedom” this weekend in protest.
Public sex in The Meat Rack has long been an open secret among residents and authorities. Gay men have gone 40 years among the thickly wooded trails without interference by the police. As a result, many islanders consider The Meat Rack a safe haven for erotic activity.
But on June 15, two men were cited by park rangers with Fire Island’s National Park Service for disorderly conduct and possession of a controlled substance. Although one man was restrained when he attempted to flee the scene, no actual arrests were made.
Then on June 21, two park rangers issued three more citations for disorderly conduct in the same area.
A Fire Island resident told the Blade he witnessed one of the incidents and was told that anyone having sex there would be arrested and tried in federal court. In fact, the issued citations were for $125 and carried no mandatory court appearance.
The resident said the rangers were yelling, and the boys were obviously scared, which many feel is unwarranted, given the park’s long-standing disregard for what goes on in the Meat Rack.
"It seems that the park rangers have nothing better to do than to go into secluded wooded areas to harass us," said Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and a frequent face on Fire Island (and Blade contributor). "It’s another example of our so-called government security invading our privacy and making arrests for victimless crimes."
Fire Island’s National Park Service superintendent Sean McGuinness maintained that the citations were made by “young, seasonal rangers” who were on routine patrol of the area.
"There is a fine line between resource protection and the traditional activities that occur on Fire Island," McGuinness said. "No raids have been conducted. No populations have been targeted, but federal law enforcement officers cannot be expected to avoid their obligation to uphold existing laws."
Steve Weinstein, author of “The Q Guide to Fire Island,” called the Meat Rack a "safety zone" that keeps sex out of public view. He likened the area to a forest in the middle of the wilderness.
“I really think this was a misunderstanding," Weinstein said. "My personal feeling is that there has always been a tacit assumption of what goes on in the Meat Rack of Fire Island, and straight people have never had an objection to it."
McGuinness maintained that officers on routine patrol of the area “happened upon displays of overt sexual activity” which was “in public view of the trail, where they could be observed by anyone walking by.”
The Fire Island National Park Service declared Tuesday in a statement that there has been no policy change, and McGuinness said the Service respects the “traditional activities” of the Meat Rack and Fire Island.
One explanation for the citations is an increase in park rangers due to the Fire Island National Seashore’s recent budget increase.
“We just have a few more people out there in uniform,” said Paula S. Valentine, public affairs officer with the Fire Island National Seashore. “They may just as easily have come across someone having a heart attack or suffering some other medical condition. The process of ‘doing their job’ may have been seen in a different light under those circumstances."
The Meat Rack has been free of raids since The Mattachine Society, one of the first gay-rights organizations, worked to keep the Suffolk County police out of the area in the 1960s, when the Meat Rack was already known as a hub for gay sex.
Fire Islanders who fear these citations will become a regular occurrence at the Meat Rack cruising ground will protest 4 p.m., June 28, at the Carrington House, an abandoned park building on the edge of The Pines.
Organizers said attendants of the “Circle Jerk For Freedom” will engage in “massive mutual masturbation” at the protest.
Park officials say they’ll be focused on boater safety that weekend.
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