Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path

An intimate look at one of culture's most enduring taboos: public sex. In these surprisingly poetic essays, lawyer Marcus McCann uses park cruising--the practice of men visiting public parks in search of sexual connection--as a way of discussing consent, empathy, gay culture, policing, and public space. Along the way, the book delves into queer Covid responses, the entangled relationship between civic infrastructure and gayness, and a deeply thoughtful consideration of the social value of sex. Prompted by the author's involvement in opposing a high-profile police sting in Toronto's Marie Curtis Park that targeted men looking for sex with other men, the idea of park cruising becomes a jumping off point for ruminations about sex-positive legal reform, contemporary culture, and the law as a way of exploring the contemporary sociality of gay culture. What McCann finds is not just a rat's nest of legal issues, but a warm and empathy-expanding world of connection and community and a startling conclusion: that we just might have something to learn from this group of social renegades.