By Jesse Monteagudo

Last month Fort Lauderdale hosted the second annual Winter Gayla celebration. Scores of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people came from all over the world to enjoy all that our community has to offer. However, at least one of our guests got more from Fort Lauderdale than he bargained for. According to attorney Norman Kent, this unlucky visitor was arrested by the Fort Lauderdale Vice Squad during one of its raids on 825, one of our most popular--and notorious--gay clubs. Several raids and arrests later, 825 was closed down for alleged "building code violations". The fate of 825 is only part of a nationwide witch hunt against unorthodox sex, public sex, and sexually-related businesses. Spurred by the AIDS scare, the Christian Coalition, neighborhood civic associations and sensationalistic media stories, authorities from New York to San Diego have closed down adult book and video stores, strip bars and sex clubs and arrested hundreds of (mostly) men for illegal sexual activity in public parks, beaches, toilets and truck stops. South Florida is not immune to this anti-sex hysteria. In Miami Beach, police agents arrested scores of men for "lewd and lascivious behavior" in Flamingo Park, other city parks, and in public beaches. Among the men who were arrested for public sex on the Beach was veteran gay/AIDS/Jewish activist Bob Kunst. In Wilton Manors, the self-styled "gay capital" of Broward County, the cops have gone after men who enjoyed each other's company at that City's Colohatchee Park. According to published reports (since I have not been to the Park in decades), queers who do the nasty in Colohatchee are videotaped by the fuzz, who then use the tapes as evidence against their victims. Men who return to their cars in post-coital bliss find themselves under arrest by one or more of Wilton Manor's finest, who add insult to injury by seizing their vehicles. Sometimes the cops wait for their prey to return home before making their arrests. So far 20 men were arrested at Colohatchee Park in a crackdown that may or may not be related to Wilton Manor's heated mayoral campaign. Not to be outdone, the City of Fort Lauderdale has launched a major campaign against "illegal"--but mostly sex-related--activity. Responding to complaints by neighbor-hood associations and their representative, City Commissioner Tim Smith, the City has marshaled its police, fire, building and zoning departments to rid the city of "undesirables", of which 825 was only one. In one day and night, February 20, several hundred (mostly) men were arrested in Fort Lauderdale and nearby municipalities on charges that range from drug dealing to street prostitution and lewd and lascivious conduct. Among them were two dancers and two customers at Moby Dick, a male dance bar on Federal Highway. Though police raids at Colohatchee Park can be attributed to good old antigay harassment, Fort Lauderdale's campaign against sex is more complicated and must take into account the City's political realities. One is the emergence of neighborhood civic associations, created in part to rid Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods of "undesirables". Among an increasingly transient and apathetic population, members of neighborhood associations vote, pay taxes, own property and complain to their elected officials--and their elected officials listen. Chief among these elected officials is Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Tim Smith. At first it might seem odd that Smith, who was elected with gay support, has instigated a crackdown that results in the arrests of so many gay men. But in this issue, as in so many others, the gay community is divided. While some of us are appalled by Fort Lauderdale's war against queer sex, others vocally support their City's campaign to "clean up" their neighborhoods. Many home owners in Victoria Park, a posh, largely-gay neighborhood in east Fort Lauderdale, cheered the recent police harassment of gays in Holiday Park. By the same token, the recent crackdown against 825 began with complaints by the Lake Ridge Civic Association, led to a large degree by gay property owners. Commissioner Smith knows that any anti-sex witch hunt in Fort Lauderdale will be approved and applauded by the gay community's "better half". It never ceases to amaze me that, with murder, rape, violent assault and other vicious crimes running rampant in our communities, law enforcement agencies can spend so much time and money cracking down on victimless crimes. Law enforcement agents would argue, of course, that they are only enforcing the law - and it is a fact that virtually all sex acts, whether straight or gay, public or private, are illegal in the State of Florida. Aroused by the tabloid media, both the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Broward County Commission passed strict laws to severely regulate "sex businesses"; and these laws were added to government's already-impressive legal arsenal in its war against sex. Commissioner Smith argued that Fort Lauderdale's vice campaign does not target gay people or gay businesses, just illegal activity. But the fact remains that gay and bisexual men are the overwhelming victims of any government campaign against "undesirables". After all, drug use harms more people than (protected) gay sex, yet the FLPD allows drug deals go on with impunity just blocks away from Holiday Park, where cops continue to harass and arrest gay men for doing nothing worse than jog around the park. Law enforcement agents employ a double standard when they enforce old and oppressive sex laws. Straights who "make out" in public are told to go home. Queer men who do the same are arrested, humiliated, and outed by the local press. Though lesbians and gay men have civil rights and political influence in Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, and Broward County as a whole, the overwhelming majority of the population continues to fear and loathe queer sex, especially gay male sex. Most law enforcement officers, here and elsewhere, share in those prejudices. Armed with unjust laws that criminalize most sexual expressions, these officers would naturally crack down on those sexual activities that they find most objectionable, which is public male sex. That many "respectable" gay men and lesbians misguidedly support the police in such endeavors is a sad commentary on a community that seems to put personal interests above the rights of all of us. After all, "lewd and lascivious behavior" is lewd and lascivious behavior indoors as well as outdoors, and a change in the political climate might send police raiders back into our homes, even in Lake Ridge and Victoria Park. At a time when gay sexual freedoms are under attack from so many quarters, I mourn the death of one of the champions of gay sexual freedom, Scott O'Hara. I already knew of O'Hara's reputation as a sex worker, author and proud HIV+ warrior when I met him at the Outwrite Conference three years ago. Ray Russ of Gab/L.A., who knew O'Hara much better than I did, put it well in his obituary, "Our World of Porn Mourns": "SCOTT O'HARA, one of the first superstars of gay porn (having performed in over 25 films), seasoned stage performer (a.k.a. exotic dancer), AIDS activist, publisher of the classy sex quarterly Steam, and memoir writer of 1997's Autopornography, died peacefully at his San Francisco home, Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 10:45p. Scott was lucid, focused and in no real pain as he unflinchingly prepared for what he knew were his last hours in this life. He was surrounded by a small cadre of friends and acquaintances who for the better part of the evening and early morning took turns hanging out with Scott and reaffirming both his life and his career. Most importantly, we were able to express our appreciation for his friendship, his quick wit and his warmth as an individual. Though many deigned themselves to be abater[s] of Scott's ideas and beliefs, ultimately the last laugh goes to Scott. More often than not, Scott found himself profoundly humored by many of the sophomoric jabs strewn forth by a few of the intellectual Neanderthals we've grown to both predict and pity - especially those residing in or near Seattle. Honestly, he didn't give a fuck what they thought. A celebration of Scott O'Hara's life will take place in San Francisco at a date and time to be announced." I welcome your comments. You may reach me by e-mail at monteagu@bc.seflin.org