Editing Cottaging (section)

==Cottages as meeting places==
Before the [[gay liberation]] movement, many, if not most, [[gay]] and [[bisexual]] men at the time were [[closeted]] and there were almost no public gay social groups for those under [[legal drinking age]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/finding-private-passion-in-a-public-place-1155631.html|title=Finding private passion in a public place; Why is it that some gay men go in search of sexual encounters in lavatories?|date=11 April 1998|newspaper=The Independent|quote=But Robert Cole, 40, despises the time he has spent hanging around public lavatories. "I started cottaging at 12 because I was too young to go to pubs, but wanted to find a boyfriend. But it then becomes compulsive and a mechanism for avoiding sorting your life out" ... This month sees the publication of a survey of men who cottage in north London by the Aids Education Unit of Barnet Healthcare NHS Trust. More than 200 men were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire, and the results are eye-opening. Twenty per cent of those questioned started cottaging between the ages of 10 and 14, and 32 per cent started between the ages of 15 and 19. And the survey's finding that just over 75% of those questioned also regularly visit gay social venues and groups somewhat destroys the myth that cottagers are sad, closeted individuals who are unable to come to terms with their sexuality.|author=David Northmore}}</ref> As such, cottages were among the few places where men too young to get into [[gay bar]]s could meet others whom they knew to be gay.<ref name=PPDAGP>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Xu89AAAAIAAJ ''Prejudice and Pride: Discrimination Against Gay People in Modern Britain''] by Bruce Galloway; Published by Routledge, 1983; {{ISBN|0-7100-9916-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7100-9916-7}}.</ref>

The internet brought significant changes to cottaging, which was previously an activity engaged in by men with other men, often in silence with no communication beyond the markings of a cubicle wall.<ref name=DavidSmith>{{cite news
|title=The web of desire or just deceit?: The internet has made it easier than ever to find a partner for casual sex, but having it all on a plate could mean that we end up losing our appetites.
|author=David Smith
|date=26 October 2008
|newspaper=The Observer
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/26/internet-sex-web-desire
|quote=Cottaging in toilets or bushes, in places such as Hampstead Heath, has reportedly declined or even vanished because sex is so readily available via broadband. The author and Gaydar user [[Mark Simpson (journalist)|Mark Simpson]] once observed: 'If Joe Orton had his time again his diaries would have been just printouts of thousands of Gaydar profiles and alarming digicam photos.'}}</ref> Today, an online community is being established in which men exchange details of locations, discussing aspects such as when it receives the highest traffic, when it is safest and to facilitate sexual encounters by arranging meeting times.<ref name="Ashford" /><ref name="Ashford2006">{{Cite journal |last=Ashford |first=Chris |year=2006 |title=The only gay in the village: Sexuality and the net |publisher=Taylor & Francis |journal=Information & Communications Technology Law |pages=275–289 |volume=15 |issue=3 |doi=10.1080/13600830600961202 |s2cid=143673992 |issn=1360-0834 |oclc=441920510 |quote=Just as the creation of the information society has allowed for the expansion in e-commerce and online communication, so too has it allowed for the expansion of online sites and communities that support minority sexual practices and activities. One such activity is the cottaging phenomenon, which involves men seeking sexual satisfaction in public lavatories with other men. Like many other groups, participants in this online community have embraced the emerging technology, utilising message boards and online discussion to offer advice, spread awareness of locations, arrange sexual meetings in the physical world and share cautions and warnings. }}</ref> The term ''cybercottage'' is used by some gay and bisexual men who use the role-play and nostalgia of cottaging in a virtual space or as a [[Bulletin board|notice board]] to arrange real life anonymous sexual encounters.<ref name="Mowlabocus2008">{{Cite journal |title=Revisiting old haunts through new technologies |last=Mowlabocus |first=Sharif |publisher=Sage Publications |year=2008 |journal=International Journal of Cultural Studies |pages=419–439 |volume=11 |issue=4 |issn=1367-8779 |oclc=438850398 |doi=10.1177/1367877908096004 |s2cid=145664316 }}</ref>

Laud Humphrey's ''[[Tearoom Trade]],'' published in 1970, was a sociological analysis and observance between the social space public "restrooms" (as toilets are euphemistically known in the US) offer for anonymous sex and the men—either closeted, gay, or straight—who sought to fulfill sexual desires that their wives, religion, or social lives could not.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Tearoom Trade: a study of homosexual encounters in public places|last=Humphreys|first=Laud|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2011|isbn=978-0-202-36942-6}}</ref> The study, which was met with praise on one side due to its innovation and criticism on the other due to having outed "straight" men and risked their privacy, brought to light the multidimensionality of public restrooms and the intricacy and complexity of homosexual sex amongst self-identifying straight men.