Flap (sex)

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“ Café Achteck ” Senefelderplatz, Berlin
Pond Square, London. Going on the flap is called "cottaging" in English

Klappe ( Austrian lodge ) is a slang term used in the gay scene for a public toilet that is used by men who want to have sex with men .

Flaps are one of a number of different common places in the homosexual scene for fast and more or less anonymous sex ( cruising ). Which public toilets are to be regarded as flaps and which are not is not officially determined, but depends on actual use.

Toilets known as flaps may be listed in gay guides and similar publications. Basically, flaps look no different from other toilets; however, there may be traces of special use, such as relevant graffiti or a “ glory hole ” between cabins. Often there are also texts on the walls that are reminiscent of personals.

history

With the harbingers of industrialization and urbanization of cities in England at the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, a significant number of single working-class men entered London, one of the largest cities of the time. At the same time, newspapers appeared and better surveillance. This led to the discovery of a male-male subculture. Systematic efforts to end this new subculture can be traced back to 1699, when police raided parks in Windsor and London. At Moorfields , an open square in London, there was a path known locally as the Sodomites' Walk in the 1720s . As a cruising technique, men stood there pretending to urinate. The bog-house in Savoy had already in 1700 a round cutout hole in the partition between the cabins, the first known Glory Hole. In the 1720s the bog-houses in New Square and Lincoln's Inn - near the courts and built in the 1680s as London's first urinal - were known as the molly market .

In Amsterdam in the 18th century, some public toilets under the countless bridges of Amsterdam were known as meeting places, the most popular of which were given special names such as The Old Lady or The Long Lady . From 1725 the authorities took on an independent role in the prosecution and investigation of crimes, the field service began to gather information, the subculture came to light and this led to mass trials. Many " sodomites " were arrested in the 1760s .

Decline in the importance of valves in gay culture

For some time now, the importance of valves for gays has been decreasing. There are two reasons for this: On the one hand, new possibilities for making sexual contact - especially online contact portals such as PlanetRomeo or GayRoyal - are playing an increasingly important role. But the massive closure or commercialization of public toilets has also reduced the number of little-used retreats. In the mid-1990s, u. a. the "Polit-Tunte" Ovo Maltine for the preservation of the (Berlin) flaps as important places of the gay subculture, however little successfully. In contrast, flaps are still attractive for those hidden, unouted men who do not want to go to the bars, saunas and parties of the gay community .

Furthermore, for some years now in Germany it has been legal for owners of bars or similar establishments to maintain “quiet dining rooms” or darkrooms . This option was quickly taken up as an additional offer and preferred by many to the mostly public flaps, as they offer a certain degree of security against sexual assault, police checks, etc., are also heated and have more space. On the other hand, pickpockets are more likely to be found there due to the lighting conditions and for some there is a lack of a certain “charm of the forbidden”, which arises from the “misappropriation” of a room as a flap.

The flaps were most important in Germany at the time of National Socialism and (in the Federal Republic) in the Adenauer era , i.e. in times when homosexuals were persecuted and homosexuality was severely punished. Almost completely deprived of any other contact options, flaps offered gays an opportunity to meet, recognize and act out sexual needs. But even in 1969, after the legalization of homosexuality among adults in the Federal Republic of Germany, and well into the nineties, flaps were often used as meeting places by men seeking sex with men. The gay director Frank Ripploh even named his successful film “ Taxi zum Klo ” after a “taxi odyssey” from one door in Berlin to the next.

Criminal law aspects

All too public sexual acts that are involuntarily observed represent a criminal offense of arousing public nuisance . Exposing the genitals in front of other (supposedly contact-seeking) visitors to the flap can be an offense of exhibitionistic action . Often the criminal relevance is only given if people are harassed and therefore go to the police.

In Germany public lavatories are dedicated to relieving themselves. The use of public toilet facilities as flaps represents a misuse. According to the prevailing opinion in Germany, the execution of sexual acts contrary to the provisions of the landlord is a trespassing . However, because this is a claim offense, the prosecution of this offense depends on the policy of the respective municipality or other house owner.

In many countries, such as B. in the United States or in Egypt , but also in some major German cities such as Munich, it can happen that police officers (sometimes using decoy tactics) actively try to detect sexual acts. For example, flaps became known to a wider public in 1998 when George Michael was arrested on a flap in Los Angeles . Even Larry Craig has criticized the use of decoy tactics after his arrest - but only after his case became public debt despite confession.

media

literature

  • Laud Humphreys : Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places , Duckworth, 1970, ISBN 0-7156-0551-8 (Born, 1967 USA)
  • Toilet shops. Participatory observation of homosexual acts. In: Jürgen Friedrichs (Ed.): Participating observation of deviant behavior , Enke Verlag, Stuttgart 1973, pp. 254–287
  • Laud Humphreys: Flap Sexuality. Homosexual contacts in public . In: Hans Bürger-Prinz, Gunther Schmidt, Eberhard Schorsch and Volkmar Sigusch (eds.): Volume 54. Enke, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 978-3-432-02305-2 .
  • Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places , "New Edition", Duckworth, 1974, ISBN 0-7156-0791-X (TB.)
  • Flap sexuality. Homosexual contacts in public , Thieme / Enke / Hippokrates, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-432-87191-0
  • Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places , "Enlarged Edition", "2. Edition, revised "Aldine Transaction, 1975, ISBN 0-202-30282-2 (Geb.)
  • Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places , "Enlarged Edition", "Revised", Aldine Publishing, 1975, ISBN 0-202-30283-0 (TB.)
  • Ward Houser: Toilet Sex (PDF; 123 kB) published in: Wayne R. Dynes (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (Garland Reference Library of Social Science) , Taylor & Francis, March 1990, ISBN 0-8240 -6544-1
  • Wolfgang Langer: Methods 1: Introduction to the methods of empirical social research (lecture summer semester 2000) - 5. Royal Paths of Data Collection, 2. The observation (PDF; 649 kB) , pp. 26–33

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radio

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard G. Mann: United Kingdom I: The Middle Ages through the Nineteenth Century (PDF), 2007, in: Claude J. Summers (Ed.): Glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
  2. ^ A b Rictor Norton: A Critique of Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer Theory : Queer Subcultures , October 24, 2002, June 19, 2008 version
  3. ↑ a b Rictor Norton: Clap, Margret , in: Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon (Ed.): Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II , Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0-415-15983-0
  4. ↑ Man Acquitted In Bathroom Sting That Snared Sen. Craig . 365Gay.com, March 10, 2008 ( Memento of June 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive )