Mr Yeo added that the app has age verification safeguards in place, where users have to verify and confirm they are above 18 when registering for an account. In his mitigation, Aslam's lawyer Nichol Yeo said that his client had believed that the victim was at least 17 years old. The boy did not know he was caught on video. This time, Aslam used his mobile phone to film the act. They met about a week later at Aslam's home where he again had sex with the boy. They undressed and sniffed "poppers", which is an illicit psychoactive drug used to relax muscles, and Aslam had sex with the boy while wearing a condom. The boy had a small stature and youthful look, but Aslam made no attempt to verify his age. On Jan 30, 2018, they met for the first time when the victim went to Aslam's home. This was the only time he asked the boy his age. The boy's father reported the matter to the police last February when he learnt that his son had engaged in sexual activities.Ĭourt documents showed that before they met, Aslam had asked the victim for his age and the latter claimed he was 17. The court heard that some time in mid-January last year, Aslam sent the victim a message via the app requesting sex.Īfter an exchange of messages discussing the price for the act, it was agreed that Aslam would pay the boy, who cannot be named due to a gag order, $130. On Friday (July 26), the former horse racing jockey with the Singapore Turf Club was jailed for 18 months for engaging in a sexual act with a person under the age of 14. How far things have come in 27 years…Ĭheck out the video of a CNN follow-up report after the jump.He looked too small and young to be a 17-year-old but Malik Erasmus Aslam, now 41, did little to verify his age before he proceeded to have sex with the boy he had met on gay dating mobile application Grindr.Īslam also admitted to making an obscene film of their sex act when they met a second time. It's actually kind of odd to see the word "cruising" pop up so much, and if I didn't know better, I'd think that Warner Brothers was behind all this in some elaborate viral marketing scheme leading up to the DVD release of the 1980 Al Pacino film. Why is it that this is being made into such a big deal? After all, when Senator Vitter of Louisiana was named in the DC madam case earlier this year, we didn't see a bunch of stories about how straight men frequent prostitutes. Way to bury the real issue at the bottom of the last page, after planting the seed of paranoia that every public bathroom in the country is a hotbed of gay sex. There is also the added element of danger and being discovered." There is a lot of self-hatred and shame and they can't allow themselves to come to terms with their sexuality.
"Secret Signals: How Gay Men Cruise for Sex" is the title, and it gets right down to business in laying out exactly how to find a bathroom catering to your specific anonymous sex needs and what to do when you get there (two words: toe tap).Īt the very end, it does throw a bone to run-of-the-mill gays who prefer to have their anonymous encounters over the Internet like decent people by noting that "public cruising is practiced mainly by deeply closeted men" and providing this closing quote: This ABC News report is much more direct. I wouldn't say this is surprising, but at least he sort of made the point that not all men who engage in this activity are running back to practice their cabaret shows and fluff pillows like the public apparently expects. In this CNN video, featuring the most inspired B-roll I've ever seen ("I need three minutes of toilet close-ups!"), the reporter uncovers the "surprising" fact that many men who look for anonymous sex in public bathrooms are engaged in long-term heterosexual relationships. Rather than go for the truly interesting issues at hand (like, why does the GOP have so many deeply closeted members?), outlets like CNN and ABC News have opted for the far more accessible/sensational "gays are screwing in a public bathroom near you!" angle. If there is any upside to the whole Larry Craig situation, it's that the media fallout has provided some reports whose bizarro factor is off the charts.