Cruising: Last News

Sometimes the answer is right in front of you if you just know where to look.Case in point: As you walk down the north side of U Street in Northwest D.C., the space that houses D.C.’s newest gay bar features a small, unassuming storefront — blink, and you’ll miss it. A “Lucky Pollo Peruvian Chicken” logo consisting of LED lights, with a cartoon chicken wearing a leather cap and boots, serves as an “Easter egg” to those in the know — the rare external clue that more than what meets the eye lies beneath the exterior of the takeout chicken eatery.Once inside the restaurant, which, despite being under construction, is already equipped with an ATM and three tablets mounted to the wall, and where late-night revelers will eventually place their orders, your eyes inevitably drift to the right, almost by instinct, as you survey the space.

Making the “top five” list of “horniest countries” are the United Kingdom, followed by Canada, Australia, Ireland, and Mexico.The platform’s “Rookie of the Year,” based on growth compared to 2022, was London, which experienced a 475% surge in users over the past year.The “most discreet city,” measured by the highest number of discreet sessions, where users employ the platform’s “discreet mode,” was Vancouver, Canada. The “chattiest city,” where users sent the most messages, was Philadelphia, while users in Chicago were the least loquacious.Users in Seattle, Washington, sent the most photos of themselves, earning the distinction of “most photogenic city.” At the same time, Washington, D.C., lived up to its decades-old reputation of being closeted, with users sharing the fewest photos of themselves.According to the data, the Sniffies platform typically sees the most action on Mondays.

Film director William Friedkin, who died Monday at age 87, was best known for “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” but he also directed two high-profile and controversial gay-themed movies — “The Boys in the Band” and “Cruising.”

Jean-Hugues Anglade became an arthouse cinema star of the ’80s and ’90s behind the potent one-two punch of international hits Betty Blue and La Femme Nikita. Playing men who loved hard and recklessly, the actor embodied onscreen a raw, alluring passion that he then upended, to powerful effect, portraying mad King Charles IX in writer-director Patrice Chéreau’s 1994 period epic Queen Margot.But a decade earlier, Anglade made his big-screen breakthrough embodying another raw, reckless lover in Chéreau’s gritty, gay, mean streets drama L’homme blessé, or The Wounded Man (★★★☆☆), earning a Most Promising Newcomer César Award nomination for his intense performance as Henri, a young man who comes of age cruising his local train station.The film — which premiered at Cannes in 1983, and had an extremely limited stateside release in 1985 — actually did win the César for its script, by Chéreau and author-activist Hervé Guibert, inspired by the street-savvy works of Jean Genet.Viewing the film now, as it arrives finally on digital home video via a brilliant, new 4K restoration courtesy of Altered Innocence and Studiocanal, other muses also spring to mind, from the slinky sailors of Rainer Fassbinder’s Querelle, released a year prior, to the pugnacious gay hustler of Wallace Potts’ sublimely sexy 1979 French erotica Le Beau Mec.Somewhere between Le Beau Mec and William Friedkin’s Cruising, we might meet Henri, looking like a sweaty, unstable young Al Pacino, as he prowls his economically depressed, French provincial town.

The New York Times.Holden was charged with public lewdness, but the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office later dismissed the charges against him.As part of the lawsuit, the Legal Aid Society alleged that the increase in lewdness arrests in Port Authority bathrooms throughout the 2000s and 2010s was part of a coordinated effort by officers to boost “quality of life” arrest statistics, a term referring to minor infractions that allegedly create an unsafe and disorderly environment where serious crimes can more easily flourish.The Legal Aid Society charged that Port Authority police continued to engage in undercover restroom stings — primarily targeting men perceived to be gay or bisexual — in full knowledge of the fact that most of those arrested would “ultimately plead guilty to lesser charges to avoid public embarrassment and humiliation, costly legal fees, and jail sentences, as well as suffer reputational and professional harm associated with the false charges.”The Legal Aid Society noted that many of those arrested in 2014 accepted plea deals for “violations” in order to make the charges against them go away. (Violations are a class of offense that are not considered crimes but can potentially carry sentences of up to 15 days in prison.)Others who were arrested reported similar experiences, insisting that the alleged behavior for which they were arrested had never occurred.According to testimony from one man who was arrested and accused of public lewdness, the arresting officer refused to tell him why he was being arrested, only remarking “you gay people.”He pleaded guilty to a violation, paid a fine, and attended court-ordered therapy, but says the experience negatively impacted his mental health.