PARK CRUISING

Human rights lawyer Marcus McCann takes a long look at the men who cruise for sex in urban parks.

Prompted by the author's involvement in opposing a high-profile police sting that targeted men looking for sex with other men, the idea of park cruising becomes a jumping off point for ruminations about sex-positive legal reform, contemporary culture, and the law as a way of exploring the contemporary sociality of gay culture. What McCann finds is not just a rat's nest of legal issues, but a warm and empathy-expanding world of connection and community, and a startling conclusion: that we just might have something to learn from this group of social renegades. For readers of Jeremy Atherton Lin's GAY BAR: WHY WE WENT OUT, PARK CRUISING ultimately reveals unexpected lessons about the value of pleasure.

Marcus McCann (he/him) is a lawyer who has been involved in a number of high-profile legal projects in the areas of sexuality and LGBTQ rights, and is now considered one of Canada's foremost thinkers on the practical realities of cruising. He has also previously published three books of poetry and it shows, as PARK CRUISING is filled with poetic turns of phrases and keen-eyed observations that make for a beautiful read. McCann has been shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert and Robert Kroetsch awards, and he's won the John Newlove Award and the EJ Pratt Medal for poetry. He lives in Toronto.