Another perspective on the Big, Sexy, Chris Koster Craigslist Crackdown!!!

I'm a big fan of strong opinions from every community in Kansas City and recently via e-mail I received a unique perspective regarding Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster's attack on Internet classified giant craigslist. This first person story from a TKC reader reveals that there's nothing new about dangerous hookups and to me it seems like the effort to crack down specifically on craigslist only stifles Internet and ignores the reality of human nature.

Check it:

One thing about Chris Koster looking into craigslist ads for sex, there's something that really bothers me. Like a lot of gay men, I read the craigslist m4m postings when bored but never respond to them. Too risky and I don't want an Std or worse. And the most disturbing part about them is the high prevalence of married men or men with girlfriends who are trolling for sex. It's often the ones that "can't host" or one where the girlfriend/wife is out of town or at work and they have "limited time at home to host" Eeew! Or the other common one is married or supposedly straight men who are in town on business and have a hotel where they can host.

The local married men post all the time. It's crazy what they risk exposing their wife/girlfriend to, but the sad truth is that many have boring marriages without sex so I guess it doesn't matter to them.

Besides craigslist, the married men often cruise parks and bathrooms. It's usually more closeted straight or married men since openly gay guys don't need to go around in secret looking for sex. We can find partners at gay bars, or through dating or parties. There's a site where people can report cruising places and rate them for "safety". www.squirt.org is one place. If former Senator Larry Craig had been checking out squirt.org he would have known that police were staking out Denver bathrooms. That site reports on many places in the KC metro area.

Many cities have bath houses where men can engage in sex all night long. You pay a fee and get a locker or room depending on how long you plan to stay. A room is nothing more than a bed and just for sex. When I was younger and living in another city I confess that I went to bath houses many times and often met married men and priests. That was pre-Aids however and after HIV surfaced I stayed away from those clubs.

Kansas City used to have a bathhouse on 39th Street right near Broadway. It was closed years ago. But the equivalent of one is still open and going strong. They don't call it a bath house, but instead call it a "gym". They have token gym equipment, but it's a place where men go for sex, make no bones about that. They have private rooms with doors. Like most bath houses they provide condoms and promote safe sex, but it's still a place where men can go for sex. I used to work at a company where one of my gay friends told me that before he was hired at that company, he had wild sex with the Chief Operating Officer who masqueraded as a married man, pinnacle of the community. But the guy had a very kinky side of him that he'd expose at the "gym" in Kansas City. My friend was a little surprised to see him when he was hired at the company and of course the COO avoided him like the plague. Fortunately for him he was never outed.

And Erotic City was known for its prevalent sex for years. Now it's the Strand Theatre on Troost or Bazooka's. The men hang out in the hallways, make eye contact, and then go into the video rooms for sex. And they all talk about hooking up via craigslist or other sex sites.

So the craigslist thing is nothing new. Just more public.