The administration of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has moral values, too.

You can kiss, you can hold hands, and you can hug, but fondling your partner’s nipples is prohibited in city parks.

“I think the most important thing is that it is the policy of the city of New York to allow people to express themselves in an affectionate manner holding hands, kissing, hugging, whatever that may be, so long as it doesn’t cross the line and become sexual activity prohibited by parks’ rules,” said Anthony W. Crowell, special counsel to Republican Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

In one recent controversial case, a Parks Enforcement Patrol officer broke up some gay action in a West Village park.

Crowell said a woman with a child saw two men, one shirtless and sitting, the second kneeling, “fondling the nipples” of the shirtless man. She reported this to a PEP officer. “The officer observed it,” Crowell said. “He thought it fell within the prohibition for disorderly behavior and, after observing it, he just asked them to refrain from doing so.”

Parks department rules state: “It shall be a violation of these rules to engage in disorderly behavior in a park. A person in any park shall be guilty of disorderly behavior who... engages in any form of sexual activity” though the rules do not define “sexual activity.”

Now, a working definition appears to be evolving. Nipple-stroking is all well and good, but NOT in a park. So naturally, then, we get this, from Clarence Patton, acting executive director at the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.

This is behavior that straight people engage in all the time. It only becomes a problem, and this is something we are all aware of, is if it is happening between same-sex couples. It really does raise some serious flags.

Yes, Clarence. The most serious flag, to begin with, is your inference that hetero couples engage in nipple-stroking in parks regularly, in view of children. The second serious flag, would be your contention gays should be allowed to engage in nipple-stroking in public parks. The third serious flag would be that cavils like this are increasingly the lifeblood of the U.S. Urban Left, now so desperately, pathetically, and humorlessly scratching around for new stuff to whine about.

If consenting adults want to get seriously busy, that's their business.

Repeat: Their business, not the public's.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 23, 2005 06:17 PM

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