It’s 2025, public spaces are for everyone. I don’t know what the Heath is like, but in Ham Lands, when you have naked men wandering around – LITERALLY – during the middle of the day, it is creepy, grim, off-putting and nasty.
Is it genuinely homophobic to not want people to have sex out in the open in public?
Hi, charity-worker who works at a charity dedicated to the protection of marginalised people in the UK (inc. gay men) here.
I feel like I can chime in a bit on what’s going on as we’ve been directly involved in supporting some of the folks involved in this:
Essentially, the “bigoted locals” need to worry about their own lives instead of trying to force-change a tradition that’s gone on for decades and is almost a pilgrimage for a lot of gay men in the UK.
We have records dating back to 1890 that gay men have been traveling to the Hampstead “Fuck Tree” for purposes of love-making. Furthermore, this does *not* happen in broad daylight either — the etiquette is essentially “after dark”.. who the hell cares what’s going on in a forest late at night??
Another argument of “oh why can’t they have sex indoors” doesn’t hold water either due to many of the men being closeted, or have wifes/kids/parents at home.
The whole thing is just making a mountain out of a molehill.. we need to live and let live, and boot homophobia out the door while we’re at it.
I genuinely think both sides are arseholes in this.
Nimbys for complaining about the cruising going on in hampstead heath (which has been going on for centuries)
The LGBT activists linking the desire not to see people having sex in public as homophobia. This absolutely does not advance the rights of gay people . It marginalises genuine claims of homophobia and will be weaponised by anti gay bigots.
I would think that it’s the biological waste being left about that is the real issue? Is Chem sex a thing outdoors ?
Classic London sub, hey fellas let’s enjoy people fucking each other in a public park.
This whole story is very ‘London’.
I’m sorry, but why do people care so much what happens *at night* in a park? Presumably they’re not going to be there on purpose, and it’s not like these men are a danger to anyone else.
It just seems like outrage for outrage’s sake.
As I said before, people were co-existing for many many years without an issue. No-one should be seeing anything during the day and I’m unsure if that has been rife or a one off with some twat pushing the envelope.
Both sides will now be hijacked with idiots with their own agenda-get ready for Heath Culture Wars.
Part of me thinks if aliens landed on earth they’d be confused by a lot of things, definitely including how prudish we are with clothes and how taboo sex is.
Public fucking is something I’d never do though, at any point in the day, but if two people fuck in the woods in the middle of the night and nobody hears, is it really a problem?
Regardless, im far more concerned about insidious homophobia, if I drew a Venn diagram of times I’ve worn ‘gay’ clothes and times I’ve got verbal homophobic abuse, it would be a circle.
These posters very much look like the work of one person
When i was a child my parents would take me to the heath and when my child was young we would go to the heath 3 or 4 times a week. Never once have I seen or heard anyone having sex. Often we would come across condoms, these could be from straight couples having sex during the day, who knows and quite frankly who cares. The heath is plenty big enough to avoid the cruising area.
The cruising happens at night. Anyone and everyone knows that Hampstead heath has been a cruising site long before we were all born.
Homosexuality used to be illegal and so the illicit meetings in public might have been considered a necessary resistance against prejudicial treatment.
Now homosexuality is legal and pretty much shares the same banal status as heterosexuality I don’t think this applies.
I’m not particularly bothered about people having sex in discrete public areas – not dogging or cruising. I do think you have a duty to protect children from stumbling across it but otherwise go for it, just clean and tidy up after yourself.
So weird that people on here want to defend people fucking in a public park. Just go home and have sex or a hotel etc. Gay or straight it’s weird to want to have sex in a bush
I want to reclaim parks from fucking dog owners.
Thanks for the f-shack – Dirty Mike and the boys
I always wondered which part of the heath was the cruising ground.
yea nimbys acting like they own public spaces are shit. but also Act Up and other organisations protesting for the rights of cruisers or something are completely insane.
public cruising is illegal, and realistically it should stay that way. i’m not saying that makes it wrong, or that it should be more strictly policed. but trying to position people who are against it as homophobic is silly. the fact that it’s clandestine is what attracts people to it.
now, because of their ridiculous protest, Act Up have drawn more media attention to it, and increased the likelihood of a clampdown. well done idiots. just smacks of gay men (i am also one for context) with a victim complex, too much free time, and incoherent politics.
cruising isn’t something that benefits from public debate! just shut up about it and let gay people carry on quietly what they’ve been doing for hundreds of years.
I have no skin in the game, I just had to comment that the title of this post is why I love the UK so much.
tbh not sure why most of you moved to London if you want to behave like curtain twitchers, please go back to whatever shire.
Perhaps this part of the Health needs an enclosed Dogging park
Is there an actual fuck tree though?
I’ve been running in that area for years during the day and never seen anything suspicious, let alone sex happening.
What does cruising mean
I am a North London resident, I’ve been going to the Heath for 25 years, I’ve actually wanted to find this legendary cruising spot for my own curiosity – I’ve never stumbled across it.
I don’t doubt that there must have been some incidents of kids or unprepared people having an uncomfortable experience- but this seems like a naked (🤔) attempt to control people and drum up a vigilante movement against a minority.
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It’s 2025, public spaces are for everyone. I don’t know what the Heath is like, but in Ham Lands, when you have naked men wandering around – LITERALLY – during the middle of the day, it is creepy, grim, off-putting and nasty.
Is it genuinely homophobic to not want people to have sex out in the open in public?
Hi, charity-worker who works at a charity dedicated to the protection of marginalised people in the UK (inc. gay men) here.
I feel like I can chime in a bit on what’s going on as we’ve been directly involved in supporting some of the folks involved in this:
Essentially, the “bigoted locals” need to worry about their own lives instead of trying to force-change a tradition that’s gone on for decades and is almost a pilgrimage for a lot of gay men in the UK.
We have records dating back to 1890 that gay men have been traveling to the Hampstead “Fuck Tree” for purposes of love-making. Furthermore, this does *not* happen in broad daylight either — the etiquette is essentially “after dark”.. who the hell cares what’s going on in a forest late at night??
Another argument of “oh why can’t they have sex indoors” doesn’t hold water either due to many of the men being closeted, or have wifes/kids/parents at home.
The whole thing is just making a mountain out of a molehill.. we need to live and let live, and boot homophobia out the door while we’re at it.
I genuinely think both sides are arseholes in this.
Nimbys for complaining about the cruising going on in hampstead heath (which has been going on for centuries)
The LGBT activists linking the desire not to see people having sex in public as homophobia. This absolutely does not advance the rights of gay people . It marginalises genuine claims of homophobia and will be weaponised by anti gay bigots.
I would think that it’s the biological waste being left about that is the real issue? Is Chem sex a thing outdoors ?
Classic London sub, hey fellas let’s enjoy people fucking each other in a public park.
This whole story is very ‘London’.
I’m sorry, but why do people care so much what happens *at night* in a park? Presumably they’re not going to be there on purpose, and it’s not like these men are a danger to anyone else.
It just seems like outrage for outrage’s sake.
As I said before, people were co-existing for many many years without an issue. No-one should be seeing anything during the day and I’m unsure if that has been rife or a one off with some twat pushing the envelope.
Both sides will now be hijacked with idiots with their own agenda-get ready for Heath Culture Wars.
Part of me thinks if aliens landed on earth they’d be confused by a lot of things, definitely including how prudish we are with clothes and how taboo sex is.
Public fucking is something I’d never do though, at any point in the day, but if two people fuck in the woods in the middle of the night and nobody hears, is it really a problem?
Regardless, im far more concerned about insidious homophobia, if I drew a Venn diagram of times I’ve worn ‘gay’ clothes and times I’ve got verbal homophobic abuse, it would be a circle.
These posters very much look like the work of one person
When i was a child my parents would take me to the heath and when my child was young we would go to the heath 3 or 4 times a week. Never once have I seen or heard anyone having sex. Often we would come across condoms, these could be from straight couples having sex during the day, who knows and quite frankly who cares. The heath is plenty big enough to avoid the cruising area.
The cruising happens at night. Anyone and everyone knows that Hampstead heath has been a cruising site long before we were all born.
Homosexuality used to be illegal and so the illicit meetings in public might have been considered a necessary resistance against prejudicial treatment.
Now homosexuality is legal and pretty much shares the same banal status as heterosexuality I don’t think this applies.
I’m not particularly bothered about people having sex in discrete public areas – not dogging or cruising. I do think you have a duty to protect children from stumbling across it but otherwise go for it, just clean and tidy up after yourself.
So weird that people on here want to defend people fucking in a public park. Just go home and have sex or a hotel etc. Gay or straight it’s weird to want to have sex in a bush
I want to reclaim parks from fucking dog owners.
Thanks for the f-shack – Dirty Mike and the boys
I always wondered which part of the heath was the cruising ground.
yea nimbys acting like they own public spaces are shit. but also Act Up and other organisations protesting for the rights of cruisers or something are completely insane.
public cruising is illegal, and realistically it should stay that way. i’m not saying that makes it wrong, or that it should be more strictly policed. but trying to position people who are against it as homophobic is silly. the fact that it’s clandestine is what attracts people to it.
now, because of their ridiculous protest, Act Up have drawn more media attention to it, and increased the likelihood of a clampdown. well done idiots. just smacks of gay men (i am also one for context) with a victim complex, too much free time, and incoherent politics.
cruising isn’t something that benefits from public debate! just shut up about it and let gay people carry on quietly what they’ve been doing for hundreds of years.
I have no skin in the game, I just had to comment that the title of this post is why I love the UK so much.
tbh not sure why most of you moved to London if you want to behave like curtain twitchers, please go back to whatever shire.
Perhaps this part of the Health needs an enclosed Dogging park
Is there an actual fuck tree though?
I’ve been running in that area for years during the day and never seen anything suspicious, let alone sex happening.
What does cruising mean
I am a North London resident, I’ve been going to the Heath for 25 years, I’ve actually wanted to find this legendary cruising spot for my own curiosity – I’ve never stumbled across it.
I don’t doubt that there must have been some incidents of kids or unprepared people having an uncomfortable experience- but this seems like a naked (🤔) attempt to control people and drum up a vigilante movement against a minority.
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