Table of Contents

Introduction, by William L. Leap 1. Reclaiming the Importance of Laud Humphreys's "Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places", by Peter M. Nardi 2. Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, by Laud Humphreys 3. A Highway Rest Area as a Socially Reproducible Site, by John Hollister 4. Speaking to the Gay Bathhouse: Communicating in Sexually Charged Spaces, by Ira Tattelman 5. Beauty and the Beach: Representing Fire Island, by David Bergman 6. Sex in "Private" Places: Gender Erotics, and Detachment in Two Urban Locales, by William L. Leap 7. Ethnographic Observations of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Public, by Michael C. Clatts 8. Self Size and Observable Sex, by Stephen O. Murray 9. Baths, Bushes, and Belonging: Public Sex and Gay Community in Pre-Stonewall Montreal, by Ross Higgins 10. Homo Sex in Hanoi? Sex the Public Sphere, and Public Sex, by Jacob Aronson 11. Private Acts Public Space: Defining the Boundaries in Nineteenth-Century Holland, by Theo van der Meer 12. "Living Well Is the Best Revenge": Outing Privacy, and Psychoanalysis, by Christopher Lane

Promotional Information

Twelve essays provide a nuanced portrait of why public sexual activity is such an integral part of gay culture. Contributors explore issues such as visibility and secrecy, as well as economic status and social class, and interrogate the historical trajectories through which certain locations come to be favored sites for sexual encounters.

About the Author

William L. Leap is professor of anthropology at The American University. He is the author of books including American Indian English and Word Is Out: Gay Men's English, and the editor of such works as Beyond the Lavender Lexicon: Authenticity, Representation, and Imagination in Lesbian and Gay Discourse.