Tea Room Trade

In a classical book, Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, from 1975, Laud Humphreys described the story of men having sex with men. Its importance for today has been pointed out, especially after the events in Minneapolis (that BTW now has a new tourist spot! ).

The book is often presented as an example of very poor research ethics, based on the methodologies used by Humphreys. What he did was that he pretended to be a "watch queen" at a Tearoom (<T-room<toilet room - is that true?), i.e. preferring to watch others in action to participating. He later wrote down the license plates of the cars, checked ownerships with the DMV - and sought up the men and asked them if they were gay... This is, they say, not the way to conduct your dissertation work...

That public restrooms and other public scenes have been the meeting points and venues for men having sex with men have been described in several works. In Sweden this has mostly been described as a historic phenomenon by Associate Professor, Dr. Arne Nilsson, PhD, in his book "Såna och riktiga karlar" ("Such and real men") where the term "såna" were used as a label by the homosexual males themselves.

The book is based on interviews with older men in Göteborg, Sweden, describing the social lives in the era of 1930s to the 1950s. Dr. Nilsson relates it to the societal developments and the modernism that then had its break-through in Sweden.

It seems a bit interesting that all these events in the US coincide with the publication of a report from the National Board of Health and Welfare on how safer sex should be presented for MSM in Sweden (from QX, in Swedish).

For those wishing to explore the issue of senatorial tearoom trades there is a FAQ at slate.com.