As parks director, Baldwin seems to have an inordinate interest in the sex lives of those who enjoy our county parks. Few would deny that anonymous sex with strangers in a public park is a really bad idea. Among other things, it can be deadly. But Baldwin seems to have the idea the county parks are being threatened by homosexuals coupling and thrashing around in the middle of family picnics. Very few families schedule their park recreational activities after hours behind bushes.
Furtive sex tends to be rather furtive.
The members of the public who are most threatened by sex in public parks are, of course, the participants themselves. Families, careers and lives have been ruined and even ended by it. A couple of years ago, Baldwin took a curiously antagonistic attitude when the Milwaukee AIDS Project began a campaign to try to steer gays from the parks with warnings about the dangers. MAP volunteers began distributing free condoms and AIDS information in known homosexual meeting areas. Baldwin threatened to arrest the AIDS volunteers for being in the parks after hours.