It was my first trip to San Francisco. There was so much to do in this city it was like an avalanche of choices, especially for a gay guy. The culture here was as wide open as everybody said it was. One thing was sure, my week here as a sales rep for Geyser Software would not be boring, at least the nights wouldn’t be. I decided to call the gay community center to get some advice on where to go.

“Hotline,” said the voice on the line. “This is Becky.”

“Hi Becky,” I said. “I don’t mean to be rude, but could I speak to a male operator.”

“Sure,” she said. “No problem.”

After a few minutes, a young guy picked up.

“Hello,” he said. “This is Phillip.”

“Hey Phillip,” I said. “My name’s Walt. I’m in San Francisco for a week on business and was hoping someone could give me some guidance on places to go.”

“Obviously,” he said, “there are tons of clubs. What kind of stuff are you into?”

“Well, I don’t drink,” I said. “I’m not really looking to hit too much of the bar scene.”

He told me about a cigar parlor near Haight Ashbury called Lavender Smoke.

“A lot of older guys go there,” he said. “It looks like an English library and they have shirtless twinks walking around serving orderves and brandy. Lesbians go there too. Let’s see, there’s a pool in mid-town that caters to gay jocks. It’s called Hunks in Trunks. It’s really popular.”

Phillip was being very patient. He continued on for about fifteen minutes with suggestion after suggestion. I wasn’t trying to be difficult, but nothing seemed that interesting. He must have been thinking I was a pain in the ass. There was a long pause.

“I know,” he said, “there’s a new place that opened up about a month ago. All the guys are talking about it. I haven’t been there myself, but you might find it interesting. It’s pretty extreme, though. I don’t know if you’d be into it.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s called Three Booths,” he said. “It was started by this guy from LA. Eventually, he wants to open a bunch of them like a chain. He’s trying to give gay guys the experience of cruising johns you know like in rest areas or parks, but of course at Three Booths you don’t have to worry about getting busted or biting straight bait.”

“Tell me more,” I said. Finally, I was intrigued.

“Well, apparently he had a lot of trouble getting it up and running, but he’s got the big bucks and after lots of bribing city hall was convinced. Plus, there was a long editorial in the paper arguing that a place like Three Booths could possibly help diminish cruising in parts of the city where they don’t want it, particularly parks. So there was a tide of pro-public opinion pressuring the political community to give it a try.”

“It’s a great idea,” I said remembering all the times I had cruised johns especially when visiting other cities. I also remembered how lucky I had been not to ever get popped by an