Stunned, he agonized over how the ill-fated encounter would affect his career as a federal agricultural biologist. He’d taken an extended sabbatical to write a book—would the government hire him back with this kind of black mark on his record? Would he pass a background check for new work or housing? Would he have to register as a sex offender? How would he tell his family?...

Officer Marquardt cited Ferguson for a petty crime, but one freighted with controversy and historical import. Section 647(d) of the California penal code outlaws loitering in or around a public restroom for the purpose of engaging in a lewd or lascivious act. Police often couple it with 647(a), which makes it illegal to solicit or engage in lewd conduct in public. Because they’re classified as sex crimes, the punishments for code 647 arrests often go far beyond plea-bargained misdemeanor settlements of $1,000 fines or community service; they may require giving up Fourth Amendment rights or registering as a sex offender.

Although people of all orientations have sex in public in parked cars on lovers’ lanes and on streets, in parking lots or at the beach, 647 citations disproportionately upend the lives of men who seek out homosexual companionship. That SJPD apparently applied the former charge solely to gay men using male decoys to feign interest evokes a not-so-distant past of sanctioned oppression against anyone other than straight. It also puts the city at risk of federal litigation....

Gay rights advocates, who certainly don’t excuse public sex or boorish behavior, deride the stings as a form of entrapment. They object to the way police seem to unfairly fixate on gay men and go out of their way to elicit sexual interest by conveying spoken and nonverbal cues such as below-the-stall foot tapping or outright propositions. After decades of denouncing gay cruising stings, critics have made some headway in recent years as the public grows more supportive of LGBT rights.