City Hall Men’s Room Is Top-Rated Gay Sex Hangout

MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS - The men’s room at Malden City Hall has earned high ratings on a Zagat-style, gay meet-up Web site, prompting city councilors Tuesday to call for the basement lavatories to be closed indefinitely.
Mayor Richard Howard, however, overruled the decision Wednesday, and the bathrooms remain open.
The Web site "Gay Universe" rates sites all over the U.S. for male-on-male sexual meet-ups, and the Massachusetts section lists some of the most public parks and beaches, prominent malls and department store bathrooms all over the Boston area. In addition to Malden City Hall, an unnamed public park on Fellsway East is named, along with public places in Medford and Somerville.
"Gay Universe" (www.gayuniverse.com) has given the City Hall men’s room a perfect score for safety as a place for gay men to meet without running afoul of the law even while a uniformed Malden Police officer is routinely working a security detail one floor above at the Social Security office.
Frank Conway, of the Government Center Commission, which oversees City Hall’s physical plant operations, said Wednesday that the men’s restroom would be closed "indefinitely" following the discovery of the Web site. A meeting with the Public Safety Commission regarding the restrooms will be held Feb. 28.
But the men’s room was open for business as usual when a reporter went to City Hall Wednesday afternoon, and men were inside. Conway had left for the day when the bathroom was discovered open and could not be reached for comment as to when the bathrooms will be closed or whether a bathroom monitor will be stationed there.
In an interview, Howard said he believed the bathrooms should remain open.
"We will not shutter this facility," Howard said. "I don’t believe in overreacting to these kinds of things. The public needs these kinds of facilities and I don’t see the need of closing it. I think it would be an overreaction to close it."
Ward 4 Councilor Jeff Donahue said he wasn’t surprised the mayor ordered the bathrooms open.
"Of course the mayor says keep them open. He’s got a bathroom in his office," Donahue said.
City Hall employees also use their own bathrooms on the upper floors that aren’t open to the public.
City Council President Michael Sheehan sent a letter Wednesday afternoon to Howard also demanding the mayor forward his safety plan for the bathrooms to the council.
The issue of the public restrooms was brought up at Tuesday’s City Council meeting by Ward 5 Councilor John Furlong when he made a vague suggestion at the end of the meeting that the men’s bathroom be closed until the City Council had a chance to confer with the Government Center Commission. Furlong said he was concerned over "illegal activity" that was being advertised over the Internet that posed a possible threat to public safety.
After the meeting was over, Furlong said the council had been alerted to the Web site called "Gay Universe" by way of an anonymous letter. The restrooms at City Hall were listed on a Web page alongside other popular sites for "cruising," or most-often anonymous, gay activity. City Hall is not zoned for adult entertainment, incidentally.
"God forbid someone’s kids are in there when this is going on," Furlong said. "Supposedly there’s a hole [for peeping and other illicit activities] in there and everything else. Imagine taking a child into the bathroom and seeing something like that?"
Donahue, whose ward includes City Hall, confirmed that the "glory hole" was there, and that it was even lined with toilet paper to pad the hole in the metal wall between stalls.
"There is a glory hole in there, as advertised. I went in to check that out myself," Donahue said.
Conway said the decision to close the men’s room was made shortly after he became aware of the Web site on Friday, Feb. 17. Conway said he decided to close the bathrooms when he learned Massachusetts Law dictates that any city hall must maintain a public bathroom within 600 feet of the building.
"The bathroom in the police station is within that distance, so let’s let these guys try to go over to the police station to do this thing," Conway said, adding that he’s had to call for police help on several occasions due to problems in the restrooms. "We’ve had people charged with trespassing for damage and other things."
Malden Police Lt. Tom Swanson said he not been contacted by councilors regarding illegal activity in the restrooms. Swanson said the police would likely assist in any future investigation.
On "Gay Universe" the bathroom is listed on a page as a "Cruise Spot" that Web users have rated a five out of five (with five being "excellent") for "safety," or not being detected by security or police, and a four out of five (with five being "hot!") for "action."
According to the Web site, Malden City Hall was first pegged as a choice gay hook up site on June 29, 2004 and the site said the page was last updated on Dec. 11, 2005.
One of the written testimonials on the page directs men on just how to get to City Hall from the Malden Center MBTA stop and even tells men that the "afternoon" is the best time to meet. One commenter on the site, writing on Oct. 18, 2005, said the restroom is "still active" for gay activity and said he has "never seen security" near the rooms.
Another poster, writing in June 2004, boasts that, even as an older gentleman, he is able to engage in oral sex "much more than average" at City Hall.
The Web site lists City Hall among myriad sex shops, parking lots, highway restrooms and other public places as a top spot to meet up.
Although the site lists a number of publicly operated locations as hot spots for gay sexual activity, City Hall seems to be the only government building on the list.
Conway said the Government Center Commission would field suggestions from city councilors on how best to remedy the situation in the restrooms and added that any work to the bathroom will likely include new partitions separating each stall.
"We’ve got a job to do and we’re going to do it the best we can with whatever tools we are given," Conway said. "I just hope we don’t have to hire a detail officer to stay down there all the time."
But a detail officer is exactly what the Ward 4 councilor wants.
"Enough is enough," Donahue said.
Howard said he was intent to see the restrooms cleaned up and building personnel will randomly check the bathrooms, but said the incident may not represent a black eye for Malden.
"In this day and age I don’t really know if you can say this is the only City Hall or government building where this is going on; it’s probably the only one to end up on a Web site," Howard said. "When you have a public place there is going to be a whole manner of human activities, but we want to make sure that people can come to City Hall and do their business, as long as that business is legal. I think in the future we’re just going to have to ensure that the bathroom is being used for what it’s intended."
from TownOnline