The wrong place for love

'May I help you?'

The deep, unmistakably male voice was coming from just over my right shoulder. It was a perfect question had I been standing in a department store. But all I was doing was retrieving a Frisbee that had landed near a large oak tree in Schenley Park.

'You need some help?' the man asked again, more persistent this time.

Considering that I was involved in a function that required no outside assistance, it took a while to realize just what our observant friend was offering.

That encounter happened back in 1984 on Circuit Drive in Schenley Park, a road that lots of Pittsburghers generally assume to be just another innocuous stretch of green. Maybe, we have reasoned, handsome, half-dressed young men hang out here all day because the sunshine is good for their muscles.

But lately, there have been enough arrests at this tree-lined cul-de-sac to forever remove any questions about what goes on here.

Alternately called 'The Wedding Ring' or 'The Fruit Loop,' Schenley Park's notorious gay meeting place has been in the news lately as local vice officers have arrested several prominent men on public indecency charges.

That several of those arrested were school and university staffers is not nearly as important as the overriding question of why public, anonymous sex persists in this day and age.

The dangers of walking into Schenley's dense woods to rendezvous with strangers go well beyond the persistent AIDS crisis. Many gay men have been beaten and robbed by thugs in this section of the park, according to a veteran detective from Squirrel Hill's Zone 6 police station.

The officer, who - like many people in this story - chose not to be identified, said he and his partner (police type, that is) have conducted occasional raids of this area. But oddly, the impetus for these sweeps is seldom the complaints of nearby residents.

'It's weird, but the people who live around that place don't complain about what goes on in there. I mean, men are in the woods and on the trails openly having sex, but people have sort of gotten used to it and they know now not to take their families up there anymore,' he said.

Zone 6 Patrolman Chuck Bosetti, who has worked the area for several years, said neighbors on nearby Hobart Street complained enough in 1998 that officers were ordered to sweep Circuit Road. They issued more than 100 citations in just two weeks.

Bosetti, who was careful to note that 'most gay people are discreet and do not engage in such activities,' was shocked not by the numbers of men he found, but by how many of them were married.

'One thing I kept hearing over and over is 'Oh my God, please don't let my wife find out,'' he said.

True enough, on recent afternoons, the narrow road looked like a casting call for handsome male models, but parked alongside the sun bathers and muscle boys were the family sedans and minivans. Their drivers wore wedding bands and guilty expressions.

These are guys who would serve you a knuckle sandwich if you called them gay, and some of the Circuit Road regulars say an angry wife or mother is probably to blame for recent police attention given to this erstwhile paradise.

Which in essence makes this a problem for all of Pittsburgh, gay and straight.

If we were all being a bit more open about our needs, we wouldn't have to go to the parks for things we should be doing at home. In private.

Mike Seate is a staff writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at (412) 320-7845.