I’m not going to comment with the hugh horde of uninformed and in some cases ignorant commentary on Senator Larry Craig and what he copped to in regards to “foot tapping” in the mens room. If tapping your foot while “doing your business” is a signal to gay activity, then I’m a serial tapper. For more of the ridiculousness of this story read this.

However, sex in public bathrooms among homosexuals is rampant here in South Florida and Fort Lauderdale’s Mayor Jim Naugle is taking a hit for it. In case you don’t know the story about a month ago he found via the internet that Fort Lauderdale (a gay mecca) had several public parks listed as “Gay Friendly”, meaning “Glory Holes Included”.

For those who don’t know what they are they are holes drilled in the side of men’s room stalls for - well, you get the idea. You can hardly visit a public restroom in Fort Lauderdale without finding such “equipment”. Naugle made a public statement to the effect that this is unacceptable and would he would propose the buying of single-occupancy public toilets to “reduce homosexual sex in bathrooms.” He then opposed a plan to put a collection of gay and lesbian “literature” — some including adult content (read porn) — in a public library. The library collection was approved anyway.

Of course this got the gay and lesbian community on his case citing that there was no evidence that public bathrooms were being used for homosexual activitiy. Mayor Naugle however stands on what he says, “We don’t have men and women having sex together in bathrooms, at least we don’t have reports of that. It’s men having sex with men, and I feel it’s necessary for an elected official to tell it like it is. I don’t subscribe to political correctness”.

Gay leaders also say that there have only been four cases of restroom sex since 2005 reported to the Fort Lauderdale Police. Of course in 2005 Broward County, wherein is Fort Lauderdale led the nation’s metropolitan areas in new AIDS diagnoses, with a reported rate 58.4 new AIDS diagnoses per 100,000 people.

However, that is simply no indication of the problem. I worked in law enforcement for an adjacent city during the 90s that had three major parks. The parks were infested with activity but our awareness of the issue didn’t come from people filing complaints, because most of the time they are shocked and unwilling to share the incident. It’s embarrassing to be basically sexually molested (if you ask for sex without being prompted it’s molestation), and many people simply don’t want to share the incident. They simply avoid the park in question. However, we did begin looking into the problem based on a few complaints and that led to the discovery of the widespread problem.

Today the Broward County Commissioners - who last wanted to pull important Hurricane updates from a local radio station only because it aired Rush Limbaugh - are voting to determine whether to kick Naugle off the “Tourism Board”.

He vows to stand his ground however and is gaining support from the local religious leaders and other activist interesting in eradicating the problem.