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The Equality Herald - East Tennessee's source for LGBT community news |
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NEWS
15 men arrested at Tyson Park Sting yields unsolicited exposure for those arrested
Equality Herald - Editor and Publisher
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A recent police sting at Tyson Park resulted in the arrest of 15 men for various charges including disorderly conduct, indecent exposure, simple possession, and possession of paraphernalia. Reports in the Knoxville News-Sentinel and on local television news broadcasts indicate the men may have moved from a boat ramp at a TVA boat ramp in Blount County, a former site for these illegal activities. The increase in activity at Tyson Park followed a June sting at that location. The story airing on Wednesday, Dec. 27, followed up on a story that originally ran in the Knoxville News-Sentinel on Dec. 25, after the Knoxville Police Department (KPD,) responding to citizen complaints raided the park on Christmas day. WVLT posted the names, ages, and charges for each man arrested at the park. WVLT-TV’s original story indicated that KPD said “the homosexual population [had] been gathering” at the park. Following calls to Whitney Daniel, WVLT-TV news reporter, by the Greater Knoxville LGBTQ Leadership Council, the online news story was changed. The offensive language was replaced with generic descriptors for the group arrested at Tyson Park. The Knoxville Police Department spokesperson, Lt.
Mark P The reference has sparked a storm of controversy in the Knoxville LGBT community. Members are voicing their displeasure with the local news station’s depiction of gay men. “I am upset that the newscaster made the comment that the parks are a place for homosexuals to meet. It sounded like a scare tacit almost and lumped us all in one category. I do not go to parks and know very few gay men that actually do. Most [of the men] I have heard about from friends are actually married men,” says Tim Thomas, director of a local equestrian center. “These articles and news bytes are all aimed at depicting gay men as perverts who will expose themselves anywhere, anytime, to anyone, ignoring any and all social decency, well, those kinds of perverts end up in mental institutions, not prisons. Most gay men are not like that, “says Brian Varner, medical ethicist formerly associated with Tennessee AIDS Support and Services. “I have actually heard more flashing stories from straight women than gay men, and I would be willing to bet that the flasher in most cases is not gay. In the UT Daily Beacon, there used to be a "crime log" section, and every day, or just about every day, there would be a line about a male exposing himself to a female. That is still not socially acceptable, but no one ever got their name put in the crime log for that, as far as I know,” Varner continues.
Tyson Park was the setting in which two young gay men were verbally harassed, sparking community-wide indignation and resulting in the “Holding Hands” demostration The WVLT story also featured Barbara Pelot, Knoxville City Council member. Calls to her office were not returned as this story goes to press. Last June, officials from Blount County arrested six men from the Knoxville and Maryville areas in a sting that took place at a TVA boat ramp off Alcoa Highway. According to reports by WATE 6 in Knoxville, Blount County officials arrested the men after they received reports complaining of men having sex with men at the site. The June 15 sting marked the second time the boat ramp was the backdrop for similar arrests in a two-week period. Local reports describe the activity as “homosexual,” occurring during workday lunch hours. The men ranged in age from 36-60 and were charged with indecent exposure. The charge carries up to a $500 fine for the first two offenses, with any charges thereafter going up to $1,500 and a jail sentence of up to one year.
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resley had not
returned our calls at press time, however we expect him to respond in the
near future and will update our story when that happens.
In
fact, Varner indicates that the only well-known study on the sexual
orientation of men who engage in anonymous sex is commonly known as the
“Tea Room Trade,” a 1970 study of 100 men. The study showed that 54
percent of the men studied were married and living with their wives. Only
14 percent of the men studied were primarily gay-identified.