For Gay Migrants, Cisg Spots Aren’t Jt Shadows and Shame

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Around one hundred gay men — many of them migrant workers who lived nearby — were stg on the handrails of a rock bridge, lookg down at the artificial lake below; some had brought tradnal moonk and other snacks to share wh iends the moonlight. At s peak, this muny nsisted of hundreds of queer men, most of them ral-to-urban migrants livg nearby, but also some accintal visors or people who had heard about the park om other gay men or on social to the late 1990s, when male homosexualy was still crimalized and classified as a mental illns Cha, cisg spac — known as “spots, ” “fishg grounds, ” or “floatg grounds” — were important settgs for urban gay men to meet and get to know each other through agreed-upon s that would not publicly reveal one’s over the past few s, as smopolan nsumer spac and gay bars have sprouted up across urban areas, the act of cisg public parks has shifted om beg a shared secret to an outdated practice — one that embodi the shame and danger associated wh homosexualy earlier rultg emergence of a nsumptn-based gay inty has promoted gay visibily and improved public perceptn of the gay muny. But has also facilated a dichotomy between “good” and “bad” homosexuals, where supposedly cent homosexual sire is rtricted to private spac and visible ditns of homosexualy are nsired cent and associated wh sexually transmted diseas.

This stereotype has been ternalized: On foms and social media domated by middle-class gays, public cisg s are universally picted as unsafe, unhygienic, and promiscuo; those who equent them are stigmatized as dulgent and stigmas ter most middle-class gay men om equentg cisg s.