The Secret History of the Gay Cruising Underground

Description:

For much of modern history, queer sexuality has been explored and expressed in the shadows. Often illegal or socially unacceptable, queer sexual acts have taken their place in history not only as subversive acts of rebellion against state sanctioned bigotry, but also as radical acts of intimacy. From regionalized coded gay slangs like Polari, to the tradition of the Hanky Code, and now, finally, to modern gay hookup and cruising apps. Queer intimacy has always been present — but not always visible to the uninformed eye.

This is a deep dive, accompanied by dynamic historic images and video, into the hidden world of subtle eye contact in saunas and foot tapping between public bathroom stalls, which proves that queer intimacy and sexuality finds a way to exist no matter the constraint.