At least 10 local authorities in the Netherlands are trying to close down outdoor cruising areas, where gay men meet to have sex, the Volkskrant said on Monday.

The tactics involved range from putting up fences, chopping down bushes, closing car parks and fining people caught in the nude, the paper said.

There is no law in the Netherlands against having sex in the open air, as long is it takes place out of public view. However, some councils are now taking action even if there are no legal grounds to close cruising zones, the paper said.

‘The files about councils which want to get rid of their cruise zones are piling up,’ Antony Mathijsen, of the Platform Keelbos foundation told the paper. ‘Tolerance would appear to be declining.’

Taboo

The outdoor cruising zones stem from the taboo on homosexuality in some sections of society, social policy advisory group Movisie told the paper. They are also popular with men who have not gone public with their gayness and who live with a women,  Movisie spokesman Juul van Hoof said.

‘These places are a controversial issue for many local authorities because they are explicitly about sex between men,’ he said. ‘They ask themselves if this is something they should be facilitating.’

‘We think they would be better taking steps to alleviate any problems, such as allowing more bushes to grow to hide sexual activity and to provide waste bins,’ he said.