‘Cruising’, an informal term to describe casual sexual encounters in public space, most common amongst homosexual men. Deriving from the dutch ‘kruisen’, meaning to ‘cross’ or ‘intersect’, cruising means ‘to travel around a place slowly, typically in search of something’.
“…cruising remains at once a reclamation of public space and the creation of its own unique locale- one in which men of all races and classes interact, even in the shadow of repressive governments.”.
-Alex Espinoza
Cruising grounds create a refuge. They provide momentary relief from heteropatriarchal social structures- Espinoza likens the activity to the “breaking of a seal…”. They teach us how to decipher coded behaviour and language; of how to see and be seen. They convene a culture and a community.
Cruising, in its simplest form, is to practice in the outside, rebuking the political and cultural forces of the ‘in’.