It must have been a slow news day in Invercargill when the Southland Time’s discovered that a gay cruising website had published some parks (Beats) where men seeking men may cruise.
To ensure everyone knows which parks the paper even published the names – at the least paper mentioned that neither Queenstown or Invercargill have gay bars.
However what was encouraging was the matter of fact response from the both the city council park manager and the police.
Invercargill City Council parks manager Robin Pagan was reported by the paper as saying
“He would prefer it if its city parks were promoted on the internet for other reasons, such as for the general public’s enjoyment, but it was not an offence for groups of people to meet at parks.”
Southland police area commander Inspector Barry Taylor was quoted as saying:
…the issue was raised with police from time to time.
“However, if there’s no illegal activity then we aren’t overly concerned. People can meet anywhere they like in today’s society …”
Mr Taylor said he did not want to raise public concern when there was nothing to be concerned about.
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