{"id":76625,"date":"2024-12-05T10:35:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T08:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=76625"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:23:17","slug":"cruising-into-the-bushes","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/traces\/cruising-into-the-bushes\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruising: into the bushes"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\n\tTraces<\/a><\/div>\r\n

\r\n Into the bushes <\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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From city parks to cemetery toilets: how public places became refuges for gay men \u2013 and why cruising still exists today.
\nBy Markus Heft<\/a> (photos), Tim Kirchhof<\/a> (text)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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\u2018It is not the homosexual who is perverse, but the situation in which he lives.\u2019<\/strong> With this provocative line, film-maker Rosa von Praunheim marked a turning point for the gay and lesbian movement in Germany in the 1970s. His call \u2018Out of the toilets, into the streets!\u2019 urged the community to rebel against social constraints<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mats, 62, from Frankfurt, remembers his first steps into this hidden world. As a teenager, his sister encouraged him to visit a \u2018Klappe\u2019 \u2013 a public toilet used as a cruising spot. \u2018For me it was like paradise opening up: lots of men who were up for sex with men,\u2019 he says. This discovery led him deeper into Frankfurt\u2019s cruising scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cruising \u2013 looking for anonymous sexual encounters in public places \u2013 was for many gay men a response to social and legal repression. Until the late 1960s, sexual acts between men were a criminal offence in both West and East Germany. Public places such as parks and toilets became refuges where men could live out their desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You just walk through nature and see the people.<\/strong> If you find someone attractive, you try eye contact, and if that works, it\u2019s off into the bushes.<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

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