Queer histories are frequently sanitised or erased, so it’s hard to pin down. It’s a practice with a rich American history as well, where these lusty loos are referred to as ‘tearooms’ – interestingly, though, the name is often thought to be a reference to ‘tea’ as British slang for ‘urine’. Sometimes, glory holes are drilled into cubicle walls, but not always. What is cottaging?Ĭottaging is a specific form of gay cruising which exclusively takes place in public toilets. Salacious headlines ensued, marking the first time many readers had heard of the common gay cruising practice, which has hardly been heard of since.
Not only is it a work of audiovisual genius, it’s also a piece of brilliant political satire.Įarlier that year, Michael was arrested, outed and publicly shamed after being caught cottaging by a policeman in a Los Angeles toilet. “ Yes, I ’ ve been bad, ” he sings, thrusting his hips while dressed as a gay police officer surrounded by similarly-uniformed porn stars (phallic baton, of course, included). In 1998, George Michael released a tongue-in-cheek, brilliantly camp video for ‘Outside’. Tales of cottaging and cruising have regularly featured in (and been sensationalised by) the tabloid media, but what really is cottaging? And are people still doing it today?