Cottaging

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This article is about the sexual behavior. For other uses, see Cottage (disambiguation).
The appearance of public lavatories, like this one in Pond Square, London, is the origin of the term cottaging.

Cottaging is a British gay slang term referring to anonymous sex between men in a public lavatory (a cottage or tea-room), and cruising for sexual partners with the intention of having sex elsewhere.[1] The term has its roots in self-contained English toilet blocks resembling small cottages in their appearance; in the English cant language of Polari this became a double entendre by gay men referring to sexual encounters.[2]

Cottage used in this sense is predominantly British (a cottage in the usual sense being a small, cosy, countryside home), though the term is occasionally used with the same meaning in other parts of the world. Among gay men in America, lavatories used for this purpose are called tea rooms likely derived from the gay tea dances popularized in the 1970s.[3]

In 1970, an American graduate student at Washington University, Laud Humphreys published a famous and controversial PhD dissertation, Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, on the tearoom phenomenon, attempting to categorize the diverse social backgrounds and personal motives.[4]

Although the term is often associated with gay men, it can apply to anybody. The term cottaging is rarely used outside gay communities and as attitudes towards LGBT people become more tolerant, fewer individuals find themselves limited to covert and illicit ways of meeting others.[5]

Contents

[edit] Locations of cottages

Cottages were and are located in places heavily used by many people such as bus stations, train stations, airports and University campuses. Often glory holes are drilled in the walls between bathroom stalls in popular cottages. Foot signals are used to signify that one wishes to connect with the person in the next stall. In some heavily used cottages, an etiquette develops and one person may function as a lookout to warn if non-cottagers are coming.[4]

Since about 1980 more of those in authority have become more aware of the existence of cottages in places under their jurisdiction and have reduced the height of or even removed doors from the stalls of popular cottages, or extended the walls between the stalls to the floor to prevent foot signalling.

[edit] Cottages before Stonewall

Before the gay liberation movement's modern spark, the Stonewall riots, in 1969, cottages were amongst the few places that men too young to get into gay bars could meet others that they knew for sure to be gay.[5] Many, if not most gay and bisexual men at the time were closeted and there were almost no public gay social groups for those under legal drinking age.

[edit] Legal status

Sexual acts in public lavatories are outlawed by many jurisdictions. It is likely that the element of risk involved in cottaging makes it an attractive activity to some.[6]

Historically in the United Kingdom, public gay sex often resulted in a charge and conviction of gross indecency, an offence only pertaining to acts committed by males and particularly applied to homosexual activity.[7][8] Resulting in stiffer penalties than equivalent offences committed by women or heterosexuals, the law was felt to be unfair and much lobbying took place, especially by gay groups, to get these acts of indecency removed from the statute books. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 eventually removed this contentious offence in favour of "indecent exposure" and specifically "engaging in sexual activity in a public lavatory", an offence which for the first time specifically encapsulated and outlawed cottaging.

In US law, there is no such equivalent and individuals tend to be convicted under "lewd behavior" laws.

In many of the cases where people are brought to court for cottaging, the issue of entrapment arises, since law-enforcement officers generally are not supposed to encourage people to engage in criminal activity. Another reason for the decline in cottaging is the closure of public toilets or their replacement by units designed to accommodate only one person at a time.

[edit] Famous Cases

  • In 1943 newspaper editor Clarence McNulty[9] was arrested for wilfully and obscenely exposing his person in the Lang Park toilets in Sydney. He denied the charges and this early case highlighted the practice of the police using pretty policeman (i.e. as "bait") to entrap the public. As only one police officer was present in the toilet, the magistrate determined that the police were unable to correctly corroborate the evidence and gave McNulty the benefit of the doubt.[10]
  • In 1953 actor John Gielgud was arrested and fined £10 for cottaging ("persistently Importuning").[11][12]
  • In October 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson's aide Walter Jenkins was arrested in a YMCA in Washington, D.C., and subsequently dismissed.[13]
  • In 1988, Australian radio personality Alan Jones was arrested in a public lavatory block in London's West End and charged with two counts of outraging public decency by behaving in an indecent manner under the Westminster by-laws. He was later cleared of all charges and awarded costs.[14]
  • In 1998, pop star George Michael was arrested and found guilty of cottaging in the United States of America.[15] Michael later presented a fictionalized parody of the events in his music videos for "Outside" and was sued by one of the officers in the original arrest for portraying him as non-heterosexual and mocking him. The suit was ultimately dismissed.[16][17]
  • In October 1998, Labour Party MP Ron Davies was mugged at knife point on Clapham Common. He resigned after it became clear he was cruising at a notorious cottaging area.[18]
  • In 2007, Idaho Senator Larry Craig was arrested in a men's public restroom in the Lindbergh Terminal of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for allegedly soliciting sex. Craig later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and announced his intent to resign from office,[19] which he later rescinded. He has since contested his guilty plea and has repeatedly tried to bring the matter to trial.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Sex Tips for Gay Guys by Dan Anderson; Published by Macmillan, 2002; ISBN 0312288735, 9780312288730
  2. ^ Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang by Paul Baker; Published by Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004; ISBN 0826473431, 9780826473431.
  3. ^ Rodgers, Bruce Gay Talk (The Queen’s Vernacular): A Dictionary of Gay Slang New York:1972 Paragon Books, an imprint of G.P. Putnam’s Sons Page 195.
  4. ^ a b (Humphreys, 1975)
  5. ^ a b Prejudice and Pride: Discrimination Against Gay People in Modern Britain by Bruce Galloway; Published by Routledge, 1983; ISBN 0710099169, 9780710099167.
  6. ^ Public Sex/gay Space by William Leap; Published by Columbia University Press, 1999; ISBN 0231106912, 9780231106917.
  7. ^ Walter Bluhm (1965-06-23). "Police Observation". The Times. p. 13. "The officers described the toilet in question as a notorious meeting ground and referred to 26 convictions as a result of their observations." 
  8. ^ Helen Chappell (1984-10-17). "Far from gay / Prejudice against homosexuals". "There's all the extra police interest - raids on gay bookshops, the changes in the Police Bill, the belief of the 'pretty police' in their holy quest to stamp out cottaging." 
  9. ^ "McNulty, Clarence Sydney (1903 - 1964) Biographical Entry". Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150322b.htm. Retrieved on 2009-03-10. 
  10. ^ (French, 1993) pages 95-97
  11. ^ Rhoda Koenig (2008-02-28). "When England hounded a hero; John Gielgud's arrest for cottaging in 1953 sparked public outrage and, for the actor, private agony. A new play tells the story of the scandal.". Independent Extra. 
  12. ^ "Fine For "Persistently Importuning"". The Times. 1953-10-22. p. 5. 
  13. ^ "The Jenkins Report". Time, 1964-10-30. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876303,00.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-09. 
  14. ^ Rosie Mckay (1988-12-07). "Former coach Jones denies charge of indecency". The Advertiser. 
  15. ^ Hall, Allan (1998-05-15). "George sentenced to sex therapy". Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland). 
  16. ^ A. Wallace Tashima (3 December 2002) (.PDF). Marcelo Rodriguez v Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. United States Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/6BEA0A1BA36F0D2A88256C84000643EA/$file/0056923.pdf?openelement. Retrieved on 2008-02-15. 
  17. ^ "George Bust 'Bad Karma' Says U.S. Cop", Sunday Star, 5 March 2006
  18. ^ "Courting danger on the Common". Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland). 1998-10-28. 
  19. ^ Craig's Lust. Slate, August 28, 2007

[edit] References

  • French, Robert (1993). Camping By A Billabong: gay and lesbian stories from Australian history. BlackWattle Press. ISBN 1875243143. 
  • Humphreys, Laud (1975). Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places. Aldine Transaction. ISBN 9780202302836. 

[edit] See also

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) slang
LGBT portal
Polari · Lavender linguistics · Terminology of homosexuality
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