Gay cruise spot
If you are already in Puglia then you probably know that Puglia is Italy’s top gay summer destination. Puglia is one of only three Italian destinations chosen by the Rough Guide for their top LGBTQ+ friendly European destinations (Bologna and Milan are recommended as destinations to visit in Autumn).
Summer in Puglia is all about the beach. Boiling, sweaty and salty all summer long, Puglia has Italy’s top gay beach – Punta della Suina, nearby Gallipoli which also regularly tops the list as Italy’s top queer summer destination.
It should reach as no surprise then that the focus for most of Puglia’s same-sex attracted cruising takes place at the beach.
Top of Puglia’s gay cruising destinations are the top gay and top nudist beaches: Punta della Suina, Torre Guaceto and our personal favourite, D’Ayala beach.
“Puglia, the ‘Heel of Italy’ is rightly considered one of the most gay-friendly Italian regions. The natural beauty of the beaches of Salento and the city of Gallipoli, surrounded by the sea, creates the flawless atmosphere for a vibrant LGBTQ+ community”.
ENIT, the Italian National Tourist Board
Note: the Italian Penal Code prohibits individuals from performing acts of indecency
Cruising Spots
Because intimate places were largely a luxury, gay men did not have anywhere encounter partners under the Communist regime, and so they frequented some public places in the center of the Bucharest. Some were public restroom.
The dangers of such 'promiscuity' included vice squads that would patrol these cruising spaces to arrest homosexuals and prostitutes. They often showed up dressed in civilian clothes, trying to entrap male lover people alone or with the help of mobs of teenagers ready to assault gay men.
What cruising spots meant
Although men’s homosexual relations often left them feeling desperate at the situation they were living, they found an break out in the multiple cruising spaces in Bucharest, which in comparison to the former-USSR, did not hold a name for them. Having few places to socialize made it awfully hard to build a collective identity and group, or stable romantic relationships. Sexual relations between homosexual men often took place in parks, movie theatres, and public restrooms where the spark ignited, the need was met, and each continued with their own lives once they left the premises. Gara de Nord
The Freddie Guide to: Cruising
What is gay cruising?
Straight cruising is a vacay on a boat. Gay cruising is the art of hooking up in common.
Cruising is almost always anonymous, and can be one-on-one, in groups, or with others watching. It’s done by using non-verbal cues to show you’re both interested – deliberate of it like a secret, horny code. Some people will have sex right there, while some may take their significant other to a more modest location.
Where did cruising arrive from?
Cruising has a extended history in the homosexual community. There are recorded cruising spots in cities like Toronto, London and New York dating support over a hundred years. In the time before gay bars, when homosexuality was illegal, public places were often the only option for queer people to meet each other.
Evidence for this often comes from prosecution records – we know where people were cruising based on arrests for “sodomy” or “gross indecency”. These were historic offences made to criminalize gay sex, and were almost exclusively applied to queer men. Sodomy and indecency laws were common throughout the British Empire, but have been repealed in most countries.
In the US, anti-sodomy laws were r
Your Guide to Cruising
How to Cruise
Cruising has come a long way since hanky code, polari, and subtle glances. There are lots of diverse locations to suit any preference, such as:
- Public bathrooms
- Cruising bars and clubs
- Gay saunas
- Cruising parks
- Gay cruising beaches
Not only can you meet guys in public spaces but in online ones too. For example, Grindr is essentially a cruising catalogue of who's around, and also a great tool to predetermine the location that you'll hook up in. You can also choose to cruise on alt twitter, a subsection of Twitter where people create mostly anonymous profiles, post spicy R18 content, and arrange hook ups or content collabs.
When it comes to public spaces, it helps if there are other people there to cruise! Click here for a comprehensive list of places throughout Brand-new Zealand / Aotearoa that are known as cruising sites, or visit Squirt.org (this is a paid service) for more. Recollect, you may also experience people who aren’t looking to cruise so it’s important to know what signs to look out for - read on to find out.
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