Look! Up in that tree!

By MADISON J. GRAY, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Two gay lovers — a man in a black dress and a boy in only a pair of shorts —
protested their families' lack of understanding for their relationship by climbing a Central Park tree
on Thursday, stripping, performing lewd acts in front of onlookers and refusing to come down for
hours.

The lovers, ages 32 and 17, scaled the 55-foot larch tree next
to the Chess and Checkers House around 4 p.m., said Detective
John Sweeney, a police department spokesman.

The couple had told the boy's parents about their relationship
and been rebuked, police said.

The man played on branches near the top of the tree and
waved at onlookers while the boy sat quietly a few feet below
him. Police said the man later performed oral sex on the boy
and stripped down to a thong to taunt them.

Police were alerted to the mischief when an onlooker flagged
down a bicycle officer. When Emergency Services Unit
officers responded, "the two individuals began to shout
obscenities to the approaching officers, threatening to push the officers down and throw branches at
them in an effort to ward the officers off," police Inspector William Callahan said.

The two were in danger of falling because the tree's largest branches were only 4 inches thick and
couldn't support their weight for long, said police, who set up an inflatable safety mat on the
ground.

Police negotiators who went up the tree to talk the couple down gave them soft drinks and water. A
crowd of about 100 onlookers stood nearby.

After about five hours, police put harnesses on the lovers and began to lure them down. The names
of the lovers were not immediately released.

The couple were taken to a hospital for evaluation, and Callahan said arrests and criminal charges
depended on the outcomes of those evaluations.

No one was injured in the bizarre Earth Day stunt, Callahan said.

"When I heard they were in a tree," he said, "I figured it was very fitting."