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While some members of Denver’s gay culture enjoyed the thrill of public sex, other men found the increased hostility of the Y’s operators unpleasant. Or they would make noises to alert occupants someone was entering. Some began designating a guard to stand by the stall while sexual relations took place. Homosexual men became increasingly careful and cunning regarding their actions. The bathroom on the first floor was closed, but the bathroom on the third floor was more well-known.” He stated, “I have seen fellatio, sodomy, and analingus.
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“R” first began to venture into the bathroom at the age of 21. Very few men under 20 seem to know about this place.” The usual age is 25 to 35 but some much older men attend. “R” remembered staying at the Y one night: “There was group sex in the YMCA men’s room as many as five men at a time engaged in mutual sex. “Much of the problem at the Y centered around activity in the two dormitories, one with 8 beds, the other with 10,” according to Brousard. The operators of the YMCA were aware of homosexual acts, but not its extent. We’ve got a list of 35 or 40 guys to whom we won’t rent rooms because of what we know about them.” Īt one point, Brousard closed the dormitories to all but servicemen or supervised groups, such as athletic teams, to avoid any occurrence of gay sex, but that did not solve the problem. It’s tapered off now to two or three, usually its transients who are killing us. ‘At one time, we were moving out four or five men a week. Brousard was quoted: “‘Our residence hall has an average of 200 guests a night,’ he said. Denver’s YMCA eventually ousted the majority of transients, but incidence of homosexual acts persisted. Transients, hoboes, and homosexuals used the YMCA as a meeting place for sexual intimacy throughout the twentieth century. Over six feet tall, the 37-year-old stern and stocky ex-marine from Chicago, was sent by the Washington YMCA to take over as executive secretary of the Denver Y. ‘Get rid of the queers,’” according to The Denver Post. Rollen N. As some Y patrons increasingly complained about homosexual acts the operators felt they had to act.Ī new Y director “was given a double-barreled assignment: -Put the Y on a sound financial footing. But such activity did not go unnoticed by the Y’s operators or the local police. Homosexual activity within semi-private meet up places such as the Denver Y was common knowledge among members of Denver’s gay culture. Since that time he has made it a practice to frequent this restroom.” In the third floor men’s restroom, he found a hole cut between the last two toilet stalls. Bars were just beginning to open to an exclusively gay clientele and the YMCA was known as a meeting place for homosexuals visiting and living in the “Mile High City.”Īs Mangan writes: “Three years ago ‘R’ went to the central YMCA in Denver. “R” had made frequent visits to the city’s gay sex spots throughout his college career, and stayed at the YMCA. “R” as Mangan referred to him, was no stranger to Denver’s burgeoning gay subculture. In 1971, gay journalist Terry Mangan, interviewed a young man with the initials A.J.R., who moved to Denver following his graduation from Colorado College in 1969. Men continued to use the “Y” as a meeting place for sexual relationships. The Denver Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) became one of the first sites of conflict. The “privatizing” of sexual acts-moving them away from free, outdoor spaces-made it more difficult for law enforcement agents to successfully entrap and harass homosexual men. Denver’s elite gay men hoped to move the national conversation on homosexuality away from sexual acts alone. They wanted to present homosexuality as a normal relationship between consenting adults. They aimed to disconnect homosexuality from notions of perversion and prostitution. In response to men’s sexual acts with men in public spaces, middle and upper class gay white men began to advocate for sexual encounters in private or semi-private spaces. The areas around Civic Center Park, the Capitol, and the historic Broadway Avenue were notorious as Denver’s red-light district. Having no separate or safe spaces in Denver, individuals who shared houses, or could not afford private rooms, used the areas around the state capitol building for sexual contacts. In 1960 the homosexual bar scene was just beginning to develop. Earlier in Denver’s history, as in other gay communities, sexual acts between men routinely took place in city parks or bathrooms.