New York- www.gaycitynews.com- City Council Speaker Christine Quinn [pictured] and New York City’s tourism agency announced a $1.9 million campaign on April 7 that will invite gay and lesbian tourists to the Big Apple in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. So welcome, bienvenue, wilkommen. And you’re under arrest.

“Perhaps the city should rename its marketing brainchild Stonewall, Back to the Future,” said Robert Pinter, founder of the Coalition to Stop the Arrests and one of at least 30 men who was busted last year in Manhattan porn shops by vice cops. “As part of the marketing they could direct gay visitors to adult video stores where the vice squad will treat them to an authentic Stonewall-era experience of targeting, intimidation, and arrest for doing absolutely nothing illegal.”

Among the men arrested in 2008 were at least four out-of-towners. One was a 53-year-old from California, another a 19-year-old from Virginia, and a couple, one was 37 and the other 42, from Europe. All four were busted in Blue Door Video in the East Village.

After news of the arrests broke in late 2008, Brendan Fay, a longtime gay activist and a coalition member, heard from activists across the Atlantic.

“I got emails from Moscow and from London and from Dublin and from Warsaw,” Fay said. “All were similarly really shocked that this was happening. For all of them, it reminded them of tactics that they assumed were history.”

The police have sent young, undercover officers into porn shops where they aggressively flirt with men and get them to agree to a consensual sex encounter outside the shop. As they leave the shop or once outside the shop, only then do the officers say they want to pay the other man for the sex. In some cases, the money is mentioned right before the men are arrested.

The few men who have spoken with Gay City News said they never agreed to accept any cash, and the arrests are seen as false arrests by the gay community.

“I think it gave them pause about being visitors or tourists in New York,” Fay said of the activists who wrote him. “It just contradicted their perception of New York as a place where civil liberties are honored and that there are freedoms here that are not to be enjoyed elsewhere.”

Altogether, police have busted at least 50 men in at least eight porn shops dating back to 2004. The city cited the prostitution arrests in nuisance abatement lawsuits it brought against seven of those shops since 2005, with five of those suits coming in 2008 and 2009. The arrests are not simply an inconvenience. All four of the out-of-towners pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. The Californian received a one-year conditional discharge, meaning the case will be closed if he is not arrested for one year. His criminal records will eventually be sealed though the information about him in the Blue Door nuisance abatement lawsuit will remain public.

The other three were sentenced to two days of community service and small fines, but they did not complete their sentences. Arrest warrants were issued for all three last year. The 19-year-old could be arrested any time he interacts with law enforcement anywhere in the country and they check his criminal history. The warrants would not automatically bar the two European men from obtaining a visa to visit the US, but they could be refused a visa. If they obtain a visa or if they are from a country that is part of the visa-waiver program, they would likely be refused entry and arrested when they pass through US customs.

At a February 11 meeting with coalition members and elected officials, Brian Conroy, deputy chief of the police department’s vice enforcement division, said only that police had paused in their arrest efforts.

“We know that unsuspecting visitors could find themselves arrested,” Fay said. “As far as we know, the policy remains in place. There are no indications that this policy is over, is history.”

In a statement, Quinn said her office was watching the police.

“When news of these troubling arrests of gay men in video stores came to my attention, I organized a meeting in my office of LGBT advocates, the Mayor’s office, and the NYPD to ensure that these operations no longer continue,” Quinn said. “At this meeting, the NYPD said they are taking a step back from these operations and conducting an internal review. I am monitoring the situation closely to ensure that the rights of LGBT people – local residents and visitors alike – are protected.”