Originally Posted by Wayne6

Look, I'm sorry to make my first post something that's going to upset some people, but I'm already upset and I think others need to be too.

I don't throw around the term "gay playpen" liberally, but it certainly applies to the current situation in center city right now, especially the "playpen" area near 13th and Locust (and surrounding streets). I work at the corner of Broad and Locust, and often eat lunch in the area, but every time I go outside I feel that I am accosted by dozens of strange homosexual men.

Men seem to be more interested in me than women are when I walk in this area (I am attractive). Look, I don't have a problem with gay individuals, but why do so many of them feel that they can leer, lunge and grope at me on the street without any regard for what I personally find acceptable? I'm always getting stared down by other guys that look like they want to take me behind the woodshed, and I've been hit on by other men as well, and I don't know why. Does being a gay man in Philly mean that you have to be openly and overtly sexual and predatorial toward other men on the street?

Anyway, I don't really care if a bunch of bleeding heart liberals attack me for being "homophobic" or something, that's just garbage anyway and you know it. I am just in shock the way that homosexuals are embraced by the city to the point where official rainbow city street signs were actually erected. It's like it's not OK to be a straight man in the city anymore. God forbid if I don't like being touched by other men when I'm walking down the street.

I guess I don't have a problem with this whole situation as long as the gays can keep their zoos and playpens in their own house without making everyone else deal with it.