DUTCH PARK’S ‘CRUISING’ SIGNS

A park in Slotervaart, southwest of Amsterdam, is set to unveil signs indicating areas in which “cruising” between gay men has been known to take place.

The signs are meant to warn park visitors so that no one will be caught unaware. “If you don’t want to be confronted by a vision of that sort, the signs allow you to avoid specific areas,” Manon Koffiijberg, a municipal spokesperson, told Agence France-Presse.

“There are various groups of users of the park; people with small children who bathe on the beaches, those who walk their dogs, gays cruising and nature lovers. Things are arranged so that each group can relax in their own area without intruding on each other,” she said.

“The signs clearly indicate what is happening in each zone; also those where gay men are known to practice ‘cruising’.”

Despite the fact that sex in public is against the law, the “cruisers” have used the park for so long that the subject has become “gedoog”; a Dutch word for tolerating unwanted behaviour.

Recently there have been reports of gay bashing in the Slotervaart area; including incidents of robberies and violence against gay men in De Oeverlanden Park.