Police East Hampton have lnched operatn to curb public sex on beach popular as meetg place for homosexuals, fomentg ntroversy; officials and some rints say patrols are rponse to appropriate behavr but many gays claim is harassment; some nearby property owners have hired secury guards wh viomeras to try to disurage public sex; photo (M)
Contents:
- SEX ARRTS ON A GAY BEACH PROVOKE A HAMPTONS DEBATE
- A CHANGE OF LIFE THE GAY HAMPTONS
- GAY CISG HAMPTON BEACH (NEW YORK)
SEX ARRTS ON A GAY BEACH PROVOKE A HAMPTONS DEBATE
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AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTJuly 19, 2003At Two Mile Hollow Beach, the longtime center of gay life the Hamptons, the language of the parkg lot pickup scene is very any given summer weekend eveng, there may be dozens of men parked alone the lot here. Sce then, the East Hampton Village Police Department has n addnal Friday night unrver operatns and creased uniformed patrols lookg for sex crackdown has sce lated to a public ntroversy, wh officials and some rints sayg the operatn is a rponse to clearly appropriate and unlawful public behavr and many gays sayg has bee a form of harassment.
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''But town officials and many rints say the actns are not anti-gay, but rather an appropriate attempt to curb illegal public sex acts. ''This is not about beg gay, '' said the East Hampton Village admistrator, Larry Cantwell. ''We have always regnized the gay muny as an important part of East Hampton.
''The issue arose after the police received plats om rints of Further Lane, a picturque road led wh oceanont mansns behd tall hedgerows and whose rints clu Jerry Sefeld, the art aler Larry Gagosian and the Washgton lobbyist Liz have been no addnal arrts, but the police prence alone has riled many regular ers of the beach and ed an uproar the East End's gay muny. So has the actn of some lol rints tryg to crack down on gay sexual activy here by hirg uniformed secury guards to patrol the beach and parkg lot and to viotape people engaged sex Nordmeier, a postal clerk om East Hampton, said he was handcuffed on the beach that night, June 13, and marched to the parkg lot ont of many onlookers. ''He was released later that night on bail and told by a judge recently that the actn would be dismissed if he mted no other vlatns for six Kirdahy, a -chairman of the East End Gay Organizatn, said that most gay beachgoers agreed wh and obeyed the public sex laws, but saw the recent rint and police actn as ''crackdowns to stop om meetg one another.
''''We want assuranc this is not about homophobia, '' he early June, a group lled the Further Lane Associatn began plag to the village police about public sex and uratn by beachgoers. The rints hired a private secury firm to patrol the beachont property, viotape beachgoers havg sex and uratg and give the tap to the East Hampton Village Police Department, said the police chief, Gerard Larsen of the rint group's members have been intified publicly, but gay lears and village officials say that their movement is spearhead by the Wall Street vtor Ron Baron, who last year bought a $23 ln beachont property, apparently unaware of the beach's history as a gay trystg place. For weeks, uniformed guards have been statned at the end of his property watchg over men skimpy bathg the suatn ma newspaper headl (an East Hampton Star edorial lled the arrts ''anti-gay'' and a ''wch hunt, '' and The East Hampton Inpennt ran the ont-page headle ''Home Sweet Homophobia?
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Baron was far om homophobic and fact had gone to great lengths to re for an employee wh AIDS who died 1992. ''This is not a gay issue, '' she said.
''It's a not a gay thg, '' he said. ''Chief Larsen said that officials om the secury firm hired to patrol the beach had told him that guards would patrol the beach, viotape public sex acts and possibly make civilian said he had received plats that guards were shg lights at gay beachgoers and followg them on the beach.
''This summer, social and sexual activy has creased at Two Mile Hollow, now that there are no gay bars left the Hamptons. Gay beach ers here say the beach remaed the only spot for gay men to mgle whout shame, embarrassment or fear of beg some, is a pickup spot, wh a ser cisg scene on weekend evengs. Many gay beachgoers go to the beach at any time of day to nverse, sip ffee and walk their Friedman, 44, a real tate agent om Brooklyn walkg his German shepherd, Beethoven, on Tuday eveng, lled the crackdown another example of the historic persecutn of gays.