Unprotected Sex

In the 1960s and '70s, parks were about the only place to meet other men interested in homosexual encounters. Rowe, who grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, admits he was a frequent visitor. "Back then, it was pretty much the only option," Rowe says, ticking off his former haunts -- Liberty Memorial, Penn Valley Park, Rosedale Park, Shawnee Mission Park and Antioch Park.

Rowe graduated from Rockhurst College and worked for Montgomery Ward for a decade before he was asked to quit in 1974. "Quite frankly, I was fired from that job for being gay.... They said it was because of my mannerisms," Rowe says. "I wasn't about to fight it."

Rowe then spent 27 years working for Social Security, mostly deciding whether applicants qualified for benefits. (His legal troubles cost him too many days from work, pushing him to take the early retirement he'd already been considering.) In recent years, he confronted his park habit and began a twelve-step sexual-addiction treatment program. Now he's trying to avoid liaisons like the one that landed him in jail.

"I don't practice the lifestyle I used to. I definitely do not now," Rowe says. "I found there are better places to meet people than the parks."