The “Bathroom Cruising” community targets City College as one of their meeting sites, but campus police responds with an undercover sting operation.
Engaging in lewd acts – as marked in the California Penal Code section 647 (a) and (d) or trying to pick up someone for anonymous gay male sex in a bathroom – as the Urban Dictionary defines it are both considered “Bathroom Cruising.”
There is an entire community throughout San Diego that is dedicated to finding locations around the city where bathroom cruising can be performed.
The men’s bathroom located on the second floor of the C building is a well known site among bathroom cruisers, according to authorities. There is an extensive list of resources that target this specific location as a good spot to “cruise” and engage in sexual activities.
When reports of these activities came to Campus Police, a swift plan to clean up school grounds came into action.
An undercover sting operation got under way and successfully detained 16 people in the first two days, but only two of the detainees were City College students, authorities reported.
Some controversy stirred up in 2007 when Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was arrested in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis airport for allegedly looking to engage in gay sex.
“Who the (expletive) cares if (a gay man) wants to cruise a restroom?” said an angry gay blogger. “Isn’t there a rapist or a child molester or a thief or a murderer out there to catch? This kind of ‘sting operation’ is just a witch hunt.”
“Students have the right to attend school without having to encounter this behavior,” said campus Sgt. Jordan Mirakian, who is a major contributor in the operation. “The district pays for the vandalism that goes on in these places, for example the writing on the walls or the holes they cut in the stalls.
“But more importantly, it’s for their own safety. A cruiser might approach the wrong person and expose themselves to an act of violence; then we have an entire new situation,” Mirakian added.
Law enforcement assures that this type of operation has nothing to do with the gay community since among those apprehended were married men, men with families, and the majority were “closeted” gay men and only a very few of those were openly gay.
“I believe that two types of people engage in this act, those who have to hide from society about their sexuality and the ones who are ‘open’ about their sexuality but seek a thrill and enjoy the rush of possibly getting caught,” Mirakian said..
“At what point do morals come into play?” art student Richard De Val said about the issue. “I don’t think that’s cool. I think that’s something students don’t want to bump into while going from one class to the next.”
This has been an ongoing operation since 2001. There are daily patrols and walkthroughs specifically looking for such conduct and, thanks to those efforts, City College has been free of any new reports, authorities said.
City officers stay up to date with the sources that announce such “bathroom cruising” hot spots in efforts to keep “cruisers” away from campus and continue maintaining safety.