Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime

by Alex Espinoza

Acclaimed author Alex Espinoza takes readers on an uncensored journey through the underground, to reveal the timeless art of cruising. Combining historical research and oral history with his own personal experience, Espinoza examines the political and cultural forces behind this radical pastime. From Greek antiquity to the notorious Molly houses of 18th century England, the raucous 1970s to the algorithms of Grindr, Oscar Wilde to George Michael, 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.

In Uganda and Russia, we meet activists for whom cruising can be a matter of life and death; while in the West he shows how cruising circumvents the inequalities and abuses of power that plague heterosexual encounters. Ultimately, Espinoza illustrates how cruising functions as a powerful rebuke to patriarchy and capitalism—unless you are cruising the department store restroom, of course.

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT, History, Gay, Sexuality, Historical

238 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2019

About the author

Alex Espinoza (he/him/his/they) is a queer writer with a disability. He was born in Tijuana, Mexico––on Kumeyaay original lands–– to Purepécha parents from the state of Michoacán and raised in Southern California, on Gabrieliño-Tongva land. His debut novel, Still Water Saints, was published to wide critical acclaim. His second novel, The Five Acts of Diego León, was the winner of a 2014 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Other awards include fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Macdowell. He is the author of the nonfiction book Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime and has written essays, reviews, and stories for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, LitHub, and NPR. His short story “Detainment” was selected for inclusion in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories. Alex lives in Los Angeles on Gabrieliño-Tongva land with his husband Kyle and teaches at the University of California, Riverside––within Tongva, Cahuilla, Luiseño & Serrano original lands––where he serves as the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair and Professor of Creative Writing. His newest novel, The Sons of El Rey, will be published in June, 2024 from Simon and Schuster.

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Espinoza sets out to explain the cultural relevance of gay cruising: He delivers a well-written, fun to read historical overview of the practice - mainly in the US -, enriched by personal experiences and interviews with those who are experts on or have witnessed what is described. Illustrating how sex-positive thinking helps to build community and connection, and arguing that cruising is necessarily a practice between equal partners, Espinoza starts with the Ancient Greeks (a culture in which gay sex was only okay for the penetrating partner, being a bottom was for slaves, the weak, women, and other perverts), conveys the effects of the gay liberation in the 70's, leads us through the AIDS epidemic and into the internet age. The fact that the author is not only gay, but also Mexican and disabled, so a triple-minority, also plays into the intersectional aspect.

But beware, this is not a scientific study, it's an informative, engagingly crafted plunge into cruising history, a hybrid text that assembles facts, memoir, and interviews - it does not pretend to be some be all, end all of cruising expertise. It's way closer to Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, another memoir/history hybrid about gay sex, than to Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path by Canadian human rights lawyer Marcus McCann, who really gets into the nitty-gritty of legal practice (both books are great, btw).

Rather, Espinoza sets out to underline what George Michael did when he refused to be ashamed for being caught cruising and decided to rather produce a banger mocking sex-negative fear mongers, Outside (an example given in the book): He tells the stories openly, showing what cruising means to the gay community and to individuals seeking pleasure and connection. What bothered me though was that Espinoza doesn't let on what kind of disability he has: Sure, he doesn't owe readers to disclose that, but when he repeatedly makes a point that it has played a role in why cruising has been so important to him, the reader wonders why exactly that is the case (don't come for me, I also have a disability, but you can't detect it by looking at me, which makes my experience very different from somebody who, e.g., has to use a wheelchair).

Overall, a very worthwhile and fun read though.

[Eddie Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Espinoza probably does have a good book about the gay male experience in him, but this is not it. The title is a misnomer for a start: the book alternates between auto-confessional anecdote, direct interviews with a somewhat random collection of American men, regurgitated interviews from other media about other selected areas of the world, and a (partial) history of LGBT equality struggles.

Unfortunately, the history that emerges is superficial, random, and sometimes garbled. For example, Espinoza claims the Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato relocated to South Africa to become “involved in that country’s efforts to demolish apartheid” and was “influential in working to eliminate an apartheid-era law criminalizing sodomy and helping to mobilize the South African gay community during this period” (p180) - this is completely untrue. Rather, Kato’s stay in the only country in Africa with constitutionally-protected equal rights for LGBT people inspired him to come out publicly on his return to Uganda.

This error highlights one of the limitations of Espinoza’s project. He doesn’t mention South Africa (or indeed any other African country) again. He displays no curiosity into the evolution of LGBT rights in SA, and how this contrasts with the situation in Uganda (both ex-UK colonies), and the implications this has for equality and lived LGBT experience.

[ivanimdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

entendida la teoría tocará ponerse con la práctica

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the subtitle describes this as a history, this text is a more of long, hybrid essay about cruising that combines some history (spanning from the ancient Greeks to contemporary Grindr encounters), memoir, and interviews with subjects who reflect on their present and past cruising experiences. I know Espinoza as primarily a fiction writer, and the writing here is engaging and lively, placing this text more in the realm of creative nonfiction than academic monograph (even though there are notes that direct readers to some scholar material for further investigation). While many queer histories tend to emphasize places like New York, Espinoza gives ample attention to the Western US, especially the Los Angeles area. Although he covers cruising from a variety of perspectives--including contemporary Russia and Uganda--he also centers the experiences of Latinx men, noting parallels between the mobility of migration and the movement cruising incites. In the interviews with different subjects, some interviewees recall shame that they felt in their first attempts at cruising, but the book is refreshingly free of shame, celebrating cruising as a practice that produces knowledge, community, and pleasure.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid overview of cruising but it needed a little more focus. It went on long tangents about gay topics that had nothing to do with cruising at all, like international laws targeting homosexuality. It needed more of an edge and more attention to actual cruising, not random side trips about other gay issues.

[Andrew]

Indeed an intimate look into a controversial, (but fun!) pastime, Cruising: An Intimate History.. was informative, personal, and fascinating. The author did a wonderful job of blending in his own personal experiences, identity, and history into this taboo subject, making it a very readable nonfiction.

As opposed to other books on the subject I've read, and as the title suggests, this was a more personal exploration of cruising, as if the author wanted to learn more about one of his own favorite activities, read up on it, and decided it was interesting enough to write a book on (it is). While books like Park Cruising approach the topi from a legal perspective, this is much more historical, marching through the long history of cruising back to the Romans to present day. It touches on the usual suspects like the gay liberation movement and the AIDS crisis, but also includes new and interesting nuggets of history I wasn't aware of before now.

I can see critics of this book might say that it was too personal and not informative enough, and while I don't necessarily disagree, I would counter that a nonfiction book doesn't have to be a history book, and I think the personal aspects of this really enhanced the reading experience. Though I would recommend perhaps pairing this with other books on the subject. As I stated before, Park Cruising my Marcus McCann approaches the topic from a legal (and Canadian) standpoint. Other books like The Bars Are Ours by Lucas Hilderbrand, and Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin focus more on the history of gay nightlife, but obviously talk extensively about the cruising aspects of gay bars, and I think all pair really well with this installation to the canon.

[Mitchell Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Effortlessly brilliant!

I read this in 2 sittings, but mostly one because I could not put it down. This is the best nonfiction text I’ve read this year and probably the best since lash pride.

I can already see myself coming back to this book next and getting entirely new ideas and perspectives from it like I have with Alan Downs work the least 3 years.

I’m not going to be able to do this book enough justice in words. However, some of Espinoza’s strengths are how accessible the text is for anyone to pick up and read, the sheer length of history he covers, but always connecting back to cruising in its simplest form as an act of liberation, and his consistencies in looking at queerness through an intersectional lens.

Lastly, I’m enjoying and really noticed in this work all the major and minor figures in the queer liberation movement coming together in the 1900-2000s and hearing their stories again and again, but from different perspectives. Feels like watching your favourite marvel heroes, but in different movies and some interacting with some more than others.

There’s an extensive list of endnotes which is how I found this book through Cervini or Atherton Lin, linked well to every topic discusssed. Thus, cant wait to go through and favourite some of the resources to find my potentially my next favourite piece of nonfiction again!

[misael · Rating 3 out of 5]

So why do we do what we do? Cruising [...] culture is born just as much out of need as it is out of want.

Cruising has provided a safe outlet for sexual exploration. It is devoid of the power dynamics that plague heterosexual interactions, and exists outside of the traditional hierarchies. Cruising allows people to set the terms of their desire and both leave satisfied. It is founded on equality.

[Airen F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a well-written book on an interesting topic that becomes especially compelling when the author narrates his direct personal experiences, but this makes it all the more disappointing when you realize how it's not as well-documented as it should be, and that politically, in my opinion, it also ends up falling short.

Firstly, the book is very cis-male centric, which we could forgive the author for (he's, after all, interested in his own experiences with cruising first and foremost), but it does make the book devoid of any gender diversity. Lesbians cruise too! And so do trans people, regardless of their gender. Cruising is a queer way of approaching sex, not an exclusively cis-male-gay practice.

At times I'm even hesitant to attribute this... let's say... overlook of anyone other than cis men to simply focusing on his own experiences, because Espinoza almost seems to agree with the point one of his interviewees makes that people with a penis have a "biological urge" to "spread their seed", even mentioning said "biological imperative" later on, which is of course bioessentialist nonsense. Sex feels good for a lot of people, and some people are uninterested in sex, regardless of their equipment. Cruising is a practice born out of rejecting (or out of being rejected by) cis-straight-normativity, not out of cis men being too horny.

Regarding the history of cruising this book claims to recount, it would be easier to forgive the little inaccuracies or places the author chooses to not go into the nuances of how sexuality was understood through the ages if this wasn't quite literally titled "An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime". It is especially surprising that this book chooses to not dwell into the fact that sexuality was not identitarian until very, very recently. It's not just that "people wouldn't call themselves gay" in, say, the Florence the author mentions, it's that sexuality was understood through practices, not identities, meaning anyone could "cruise", anyone was thought of as capable of sodomy, it was a temptation the virtuous sought to resist (good job at making it sound unpleasant, Catholic Church). This would be an extremely interesting nuance to go into for a book about the history of cruising.

However, this book seems sometimes more centered in STORIES around cruising than in the HISTORY of it. It's not that there's anything necessarily wrong with it, it's just that the book seems to sell itself as something it isn't.

There's also the issue of Espinonza's political lenses. We all have our own, of course, but it was impossible for me to ignore how he does little things like mentioning when the USSR outlawed homosexuality somehow avoiding to mention that it was, therefore, legal until the Stalin period. Or conflating communism to homophobia despite the examples of socialist regimes and thinkers who are/were anything but. I have nothing against discussing and deeply criticizing the queerphobia of a big portion of the communist movement (it's one of my favorite subjects to read about!) but there is some clear bias in place when the USSR outlawing homosexuality for a number of decades grants the author allowance to conflate communism with homophobia, but the same cannot be said of the many, many capitalist countries that did, and do, forbid homosexuality. Some of which are discussed in this very book.

Something very similar happens with the brief mentions of Islam in the book. The author will casually mention a political leader or a region is Muslim as a way of explaining their homophobia, but when it's Christianity that drives the same bigotry, he always adds "conservative" before the religion. It's "conservative Christianity" that's homophobic, not Christianity as a whole, whereas Islam and Muslims are viewed as homophobic by default.

Finally, there's the discussion (or, mostly, lack of thereof) as cruising as a radical and/or revolutionary act. I don't even disagree with the author here, I think cruising IS a radical act insomuch as it challenges mainstream morality and legality. I just would have liked a deeper discussion for it instead of the looser thoughts the book offers. Same goes for "revolutionary". How are we defining that word? Revolution against who? Revolution how? In the last chapter there are some thoughts about cruising as creating a cohesive community and shared identity, which again, I don't disagree with, but it just seemed like the beginning notes of an essay, not fully formed philosophical argument in a finished book.

[Jaljes · Rating 4 out of 5]

En esta proclamada historia íntima, Alex Espinoza nos invita a su reflexión de lo que el cruising ha sido para él posicionando la experiencia individual en el contexto histórico y colectivo de este fenómeno.

Alex Espinoza hace un recorrido desde la antigua Roma pasando por las Molly Houses del Londres del siglo XVIII, las ciudades estadounidenses de la posguerra, la pandemia del SIDA en los 80’s y el auge de las aplicaciones de ligue. Se establece al cruising como un ejercicio que desafía las jerarquías heteropatriarcales con sus ideales de fidelidad y privacidad. Al ser alejados al margen, los homosexuales han reinventado espacios públicos para conectar con otros y configurarse como sujetos deseantes y objetos de deseo que trascienden barreras socioeconómicas y raciales.

“Fue nuestra forma de decirle a los poderes fáticos que, a pesar de las barreras establecidas para evitar que nos encontrásemos, podíamos hacerlo”.

El formato fluctua entre el ensayo y la autobiografía. Si es cierto que las historias muchas veces nos acercan a la experiencia individual, puede llegar a ser un poco anecdótico en ocasiones. Aún así, creo que la contribución de Alex Espinoza para entender este fenómeno es invaluable. Y sólo queda decir que me hubiera gustado que se mencionara el caso de Oscar Wilde, como se promete en la contraportada.

[Kira]

Read for my MFA program! Always love learning more queer history :)

[fran]

muy interesante y lo disfruté mucho

[Kel · Rating 2 out of 5]

dissapointed that this book says it is inspired by many academic texts but doesn't even reference any of the important texts by Crimp, Bersani or Berlant & Warner. Also sick of books that claim radical/transgressive histories and then just focus on cis gay men. as well as some light transphobia in there too.

[Juan Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

La parte histórica es muy interesante y valiosa, sin embargo los comentarios y apreciaciones del autor en ocasiones me parecieron excedidas y desacertadas.

[Jack Limebear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but surface-level. Could have either gone further into the history or developed more nuanced arguments. Felt a bit lacking on both fronts

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cruising was wonderfully researched and delivered in a way that managed to come off as a love letter to the gay community and our history, while also navigating painful memories and realities that will always remain part of the gay existence. In the last couple chapters of Espinoza’s book, I was so impressed by his analysis of sexual racism in the era of dating apps and completely agreed with his discussion of the unique struggles faced by queer POC. As many people are aware, the gay community remains with strong racial biases, and the intensified struggle of people of color is largely overlooked amongst the all love message of the LGBT community. However, as a white gay man repressed, traumatized, and ashamed growing up in the Catholic Church, I do wish Espinoza would have extended his discussion on religion’s role in homosexual guilt, instead of mostly focusing on just race because I think that shared experience is worth discussion. At the same time, Espinoza put together such a powerful and well researched exploration of a crucial part of gay culture in a relatively short number of pages, so my complaints are minute.

[italiandiabolik · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read about cruising in space and time, albeit it denotes some hybrid extension to Latino queers experiencing their homosexuality and their sense of shame and dirt afterwards.
Surprisingly, he mostly describes the big cities such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, but fails to even mention a place that, still nowadays, is eponymous with cruising, i.e. Fire Island.
Quick excursus on Russia and Uganda, possibly the worst places on earth where to practice cruising, providing an insight on the current situation.
Funny how at some point he reports the rise of sexual racism, and then he mentions how a Latino loves the blonde, blue-eyed men: so if a gay white male has specific physical preferences, then he is racist, whereas a Latino is just choosing someone fitting his ideal man? I think both are just stating their own personal preferences.

[lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was at its strongest when spinoza specifically addressed chicano gay identity and life, and at its weakest when he made more sweeping claims about how all gay men are and have always been. one particularly egregious example of the latter: "thanks to drugs like PrEP, barebacking is so common again nobody even thinks twice about condoms anymore."
his citation work and academic lineage is also strongest and clearest in his chapters on california gay life & chicano gay life, but really lacking throughout the rest of the book. overall, i was sort of disappointed! i wanted more detail, more historical context, more research; or if not that then a more specific memoiristic focus on his own cruising experiences, like in chapter 7, "interlude."

[Toto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed with this book. The research presented was very superficial, lacked nuance and had many sweeping statements. Overall the book felt messy and unfocused as it moved between underdeveloped historical passages, a few interviews and autobiographical stories. I was craving more, but I guess just like some of my cruising experiences it felt rushed and brief.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

If only this was more about the promised subject and less about Espinoza's personal life.

[Harry McDonald · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's strange that a book with this subject matter, that is ostensibly a memoir, feels so... coy?

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing a book about anonymous gay sex in a way that's accessible to a broader audience than the choir to whom he preaches, and keeping it to a tight 200 narrative pages, Espinoza takes two distinct tacks in form. The first half has a nearly precocious didacticism not unlike an after school special inasmuch as the subject matter can be conveyed in that manner. Which is to say academically.

You almost want to ask the author to stop giving away our secrets.

The second half makes a much better case for it being a book for gay people, specifically men, probably cis, about our favorite pastime. Herein our secrets are still repulsive to the straights, and there is a very specific iconoclastic pleasure in that. Pride, even.

Do not abandon all hope, ye horny gays who enter here, be patient.

[Pata Tús · Rating 3 out of 5]

La primera parte, que es la más personal, es la mejor, con algunas ideas bastante guays y clarividentes sobre el cruising. Luego, a partir de la mitad, pues la cosa se convierte en una artículo de revista y pierde tanto el foco que cae en lugares comunes y contradictorios. Al final acaba diciendo que al cruising se va con la esperanza de ser amado, que es la interpretación que haría alguien de Sumar xd. Personalmente, encuentro mucho más interesantes los apuntes iniciales, en los que se apunta al cruising como un espacio en lugar de una práctica, como un ritual identitario y sin finalidad, y se defiende que no es un lenguaje ni un símbolo que decodificar según lógicas heterorrománticas, sino algo que es lo que es, y nada más. Eso sí, a favor siempre de escribir sobre todo esto, y sin miedo a ser explícitos.

[Juan García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me parece bastante guay un libro con una mirada decididamente positivista sobre el cruising, aunque en varias ocasiones me parece demmasssiaado naif el enfoque. El cruising está atravesado por el heteropatriacado tanto como cualquier otra tarea que hagamos en la vida, y por muy a los márgenes que esté -que lo está- y por muy antisistema es sea -que lo es- no deja de calcar los patrones sociales con los que vivimos. Da pa hablar mucho. Aún así, está guay que se escriba sobre esto. Son bastante interesantes los ejemplos históricos que cuenta (aunque me parece que, como su posicionamiento, está todo un poco cogido por los pelos y que no es riguroso). Pero que vamos, que está guay!! Me quedo con la historia de Bette Middler y Barry Manilow haciendo un concierto en una sauna gay de Nueva York <3_<3

[Jason LeRoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sniffies update when?? This book comes out of the gate with a strong first third, containing the most potent elements of Espinoza’s historical research and personal reflection. But he quickly finds himself in over his head once he reaches the mid-late twentieth century portion, when it ceases to be so much a history of cruising as an extremely shorthand version of American gay history altogether; he struggles to extract or sharpen his focus. Then by the end it seems as though he’s realized he never had enough for a full book and is just interviewing other gay Latinos about their lives. I picked up a few interesting insights and facts but can’t say Espinoza ever quite put his finger on what makes cruising so irresistible or enduring—his interest in psychology stops far short of any actual sexology—and his persistently romanticized and one-note activist slant on the whole enterprise grows quickly tedious.

[Mars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started off slowly and wasn’t into it until about halfway through when the discussion on academic work and diverse perspective began. Lots of good stuff related to different time periods through the 1900-2000 specific queer media. I like hearing the impact art and publicity has on the perspective of male queerness within this work. That’s the thing I found most interesting, the things the writer found most impactful on his own experience with gay male sexuality and how what he saw effected that. Totally worth the read for his experience and perspective alone. Don’t go into it expecting to learn much about the actual history of cruising though, it’s not really about that.

[Gebanuzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mí sí me gustó que a través de su propia experiencia, Alex Espinoza diera camino a contar momentos historicos de lo que el cruising ha sido para la población homosexual. Me hace mucho sentido que el hacer cruising tenga una carga política, salir de la heteronorma. La espina de romper, de rebeldía y de ser quién se es. Me encontré con varias reseñas que hablan de que los datos históricos no son contundentes o que están abarcados de forma superficial, de momento desconozco estos hechos, así que me quedo satisfecho con la información del libro (como un primer acercamiento).

[Cip Duh Vries · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out kinda naughty and intriguing, but then it just became very factual and lost all life. Interesting, yet boring at the same time.
It could be that I found this book to be a bit flat because I was reading this at the same time as On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous where the prose is just otherworldly.

[Davina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The emphasis is definitely on the word "intimate" in "intimate history." While there were some bits of history, there was also a lot in the way of personal interviews and accounts from Espinoza's own experiences cruising.

[Regina]

"Cuando tu identidad está prohibida, hay una necesidad más allá del deseo físico, una necesidad humana de ser quien eres realmente tan solo durante un momento"

Interesante y bellamente escrito. El testimonio y lo personal lo convierten en un trabajo muy especial <3