A decade ago, in the heady days of activist groups such as ACT UP and Queer Nation, securing the protection of gay people’s sexual freedoms was seen as the basis for securing other gay rights. But the last decade has seen the diverison of the mainstream gay movement toward ‘normalizing’ gay people (the campaigns to allow gays to serve openly in the military and for the recognition of gay marriage).

As a result, the struggle to secure basic sexual freedom (like the repeal of sodomy laws and the protection of gay sexual meeting places) has flagged markedly. In the rage for normalizaion that’s swept certain segments of the gay community, it’s not unusual for gay groups in towns and campuses across North America to work hand in glove with vice cops to flush the fairies from local rest rooms and parks.

What a shift from the spirit of sexual freedom that infused the original gay liberation movement!

Guys who believe in exercising our right to consort sexually with other guys will welcome the appearance of Cruising, a zine that’s the creation of Michael V. Smith of Vancouver, Canada. Not that this is a political tract (although it’s appearance now is a political act). Michael is an observant student of life and lust and an offbeat smutmeister. In the second issue of his zine, the Park issue, Michael brings together pieces that celebrate this turf that’s served as the meeting ground for guys like us for generations.

In the hot, funny and useful opening section, Michael annotates classic porn photos while he gives good advice on precautions you can take to protect yourself, your money and your body parts before you take that walk in the woods.

Billeh Nickerson furnishes a steamy visual poem. In Brian’s page–long piece, a string of addictions inflect the writer’s disposition to cruising. Lunch recounts a wild night with a Gay Pride pickup. A photo story culminates with Miss Cookie playing a very fulfilled human bridge between two burly hunks in the wild.

You can cut out paper guys and dolls and dress them up for a night of cruising. But the hottest piece in the mag is by Michael himself. His fevered account of a three–part fuck that starts in the park and ends in his bedroom gets the Playguy award for the hottest prose we’ve read this month.

(Next issue: Bathrooms. Ooh! We gotta go!)