PrintNovember 19, 2007
The love that dare not speak its name in the NYT
A series of events this year led officials in Oregon to believe that Holman State Wayside Park was no longer providing 10 acres of wholesome diversion.
Noted the New York Times:
At some point a wholesome state park in the Pacific Northwest went south. As in bad. As in: No, your family does not want to stop here for a nice picnic lunch. Keep those cheese sandwiches wrapped, if you know what's good for you. Best you move on down the highway.
Now, just what happened to convert what apparently was a lovely roadside rest area, with a grand view and amenities such as a restroom, water fountain, walking trail, and picnic area, into a place to be shunned by nice people?
Well, if you read the Times article, you'll find some obvious clues to the major problems [emphases added]:
** Holman Wayside became a gathering place for people dealing drugs, people fleeing the law, people drawn to anonymous sex in a public park** [officials] removed the doors to bathroom stalls to make it easier for sheriff's deputies to see what, if anything, was going on** One day, sheriff's deputies were dispatched to tell two registered sex offenders who were camping in tents in the park that they had 24 hours to move on** some deputies came upon men having sex in the woods; arrests were made** an off-duty police officer stopped to use the park's restroom, where a man propositioned him** [the Sheriff's department] conducted a daylight decoy operation over one weekend in May that resulted in the arrests of eight men on charges of public indecency
Have you figured out what was going on in Holman Wayside park that made it unusable and unsafe for ordinary citizens? Good for your perspicacity; if you read the Times's coy article in its entirely, you will discover that -- with a nod to a suffocatingly careful political correctness -- writer Dan Barry has managed to tell the tale never once using the word "homosexual."
Oh delicacy, thy name is Sulzberger.
