{"id":277020,"date":"2025-10-06T16:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/?p=277020"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:40:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:40:17","slug":"gay-cruising-arrests-ice-penn-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/video\/gay-cruising-arrests-ice-penn-station-277020","title":{"rendered":"Advocates slam surge of arrests at known New York City gay cruising spot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-article-kik\">Twenty people were reportedly arrested at a cruising hot spot in Penn Station in a single day\u2014and others have reportedly been taken into ICE custody<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Advocates slam surge of arrests at known New York City gay cruising spot | Xtra Magazine\" width=\"540\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ca6qp6yQRMA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">More than 200 people have been arrested at a known cruising spot in New York City\u2019s Penn Station since June. And advocates are concerned about what appears to be a targeted crackdown on gay people in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the local New York news outlet <em>The City<\/em>, Amtrak Police officers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecity.nyc\/2025\/09\/24\/amtrak-police-cruising-ice-arrests-deportations-pride\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">arrested 23 people for \u201cpublic lewdness\u201d in June<\/a> as part of a series of sting operations targeting a men\u2019s bathroom listed as a \u201chot spot\u201d on the gay hookup app Sniffies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Legal Aid Society, an NYC-based non-profit legal group, told <em>The City<\/em> that 20 people were arrested at Penn Station in just a single day in September. And as a result of this crackdown, at least 20 men who were arrested have <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/news\/cruising-crackdown-in-penn-station-bathroom-puts-at-least-20-men-in-ice-custody\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reportedly been taken into ICE custody.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to NYPD data, only eight people were arrested for public lewdness in and around Penn Station in <a href=\"https:\/\/data.cityofnewyork.us\/Public-Safety\/NYPD-Arrest-Data-Year-to-Date-\/uip8-fykc\/about_data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the first five months of the year.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An anonymous Amtrak Police officer told another local outlet, <em>The Gothamist<\/em>, that the agency placed plainclothes officers in bathroom stalls or at urinals and would make an arrest if they suspected any sexual activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. representative Jerrold Nadler and three other New York politicians <a href=\"https:\/\/nadler.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/letter_to_amtrak_re__penn_station_arrests.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote a letter to Amtrak president Roger Harris<\/a> demanding the agency to stop \u201cidentifying and targeting members of the LGBTQ community\u201d and to provide \u201cjustification\u201d for the arrests.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end\">These arrests come at an inflection point of rising <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/more-than-850-anti-lgbtq-bills-filed-so-far-in-2025-the-most-in-us-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">anti-LGBTQ2S+ sentiment and legislation<\/a> as well as an increase in <a href=\"https:\/\/blockclubchicago.org\/2025\/10\/02\/south-shore-residents-return-to-ransacked-apartments-try-to-move-out-after-ice-raid-it-looks-like-hell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ICE raids and National Guard deployment<\/a> across the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty people were reportedly arrested at a cruising hot spot in Penn Station in a single day\u2014and others have reportedly been taken into ICE custody<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1224,"featured_media":277017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"editorial_slug":"86","_editorial_slug":"86","exclude_from_latest_block":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,5],"contributors":[3053,1933],"topic":[86,112,122,109],"clients":[],"series":[],"timeliness":[61],"editorial_format":[2088],"type-of-work":[2536],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277020"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277035,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277020\/revisions\/277035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277020"},{"taxonomy":"contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributors?post=277020"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=277020"},{"taxonomy":"clients","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clients?post=277020"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=277020"},{"taxonomy":"timeliness","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/timeliness?post=277020"},{"taxonomy":"editorial_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial_format?post=277020"},{"taxonomy":"type-of-work","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtramagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-of-work?post=277020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}