“Where does the average guy go to get a blowjob?”

This is what sociologist Laud Humphreys’ graduate advisor asked him in the summer of 1965.  To answer the question, Humphreys visited several “tearooms”- public places that attracted male homosexual activity - in America’s major cities.  He published his study in 1970.

Humphreys found that public parks and restrooms were popular sites for “instant,” “disposable,” anonymous same sex encounters.  Men of all ages and from all classes engaged in fellatio, mutual masturbation, and, rarely, anal sex.  They never kissed.

The participants of such “trade” were usually married, had no social attachment to gay subculture, and identified as heterosexual. They risked arrest and blackmail, but venereal disease was infrequent.

Tearoom sex was at once furtive and public, covert and easily accessible.

Here’s a peek into the Tearoom trade circa 2008 by the marvelous Choire Sicha (it contains the term ‘ass locusts’).

• footnote - by Sascha Elise Cohen