NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  June 12, 2008

CONTACT:  Diane Gramley   1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

Group Thanks Park for Addressing Homosexual Activity Problem

(Philadelphia) -- Recently rangers in Nockamixon State Park near Quakertown in Bucks County arrested several homosexual men who were engaged in lewd acts.  The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide family group, contacted Jessica Doxsey, the assistant park manager, and thanked her and the rangers for their diligence in trying to keep Nockamixon a family park.

The fishing pier and Sterner Mill Hiking Trail were locations described as especially troublesome spots where men exposed themselves and sometimes solicited other men for sex.  But the 5,300 acre nature reserve offers other locations where men can engage in anonymous sex and is listed on an international internet homosexual hook-up site as a ‘cruisy place.’   This site informs homosexual men of locations where they can find other homosexuals who want to engage in anonymous sex.  It also gives directions to both Bucks County ‘cruisy’ parks listed and offers a place for comments . . . the comment left for Nockamixon directs the reader as to the best time to ‘find action.’ 

“The Nockamixon State Park management and rangers are to be praised for taking steps to protect families and children who will be coming to their park in huge numbers this summer.   Fathers and mothers should not be faced with a situation where they have to explain to their children about homosexual sex.  But the fact that this park has been placed on the homosexual hook-up site will make their job much harder,” Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA said.

In 2003 a ten-year-old boy witnessed men engaged in homosexual sex when he went to use the restroom in Strawbridge Department Store in Philadelphia’s Center City.  The men had found the restroom through use of a homosexual hook-up website.

Additionally, the AFA of PA is concerned for the safety of young boys who may be using the public restrooms in the park.  Parents need to be especially diligent when this type activity is known to take place in an area. 

Is a public health risk being created by this type activity?  Consider the following:

q    According to the CDC men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for 71% of all HIV infections among male adults and adolescents in 2005 even though only about 5% to 7% of male adults and adolescents in the United States identify themselves as MSM.  The vast majority of young gay and bisexual men in the United States who were found to have the AIDS virus were unaware of their infection, according to findings reported at the 14th International AIDS Conference in July 2002.

q    Homosexual writer, Jack Hart, wrote in his 1991 book Gay Sex, A Manual for Men Who Love Men, "most common" sex-transmitted diseases other than HIV confronting homosexual men, including: chlamydia, crab lice, giardiasis, gonorrhea, hepatitis-A and -B, herpes simplex, nongonococcal urethritis, scabies, syphilis, and venereal warts."

Not far from Nockamixon State Park in New Hope on May 17^th  Governor Ed Rendell and Stephen Glassman, openly homosexual chairman of the PA Human Relations Commission, in their official capacities, helped lead that town’s Rainbow Pride Parade.  Did it concern them that they were placing the state’s stamp of approval on this dangerous lifestyle? 

In other parts of the country where such crackdowns have taken place there has been criticism by gay activists.  In August 2001 the Triangle Foundation, a Detroit homosexual advocacy group, claimed that such law enforcement efforts to curb homosexual activity in public parks and restrooms are "discriminatory." 

“In March Amsterdam decriminalized public sex in the Vondelpark , the Netherlands most popular park.  The Dutch police's National Diversity Expertise Center is advising the rest of the country to following Amsterdam’s example.  Is this what homosexual activists will be demanding in this country?” questioned Gramley.  “If so, no family or child will be safe in our public parks.”