Make Anonymous Friends with Excellent Gloryhole Etiquette

In the World of COVID, Gloryholes Have Been Reborn.

Once thought of as the exclusive domain of openly gay and deeply closeted men, the gloryhole is making a comeback among singles and couples of all sexes and genders that include or seek someone with a penis. In addition to being an excellent way to have a no-strings-attached sexual encounter, during the height of the COVID pandemic, New York City released a three-page document that effectively encouraged their use as a way to be sexually active with minimal risk of face-to-face transmission.

What is a gloryhole? For those not in the know, a gloryhole can be as primitive or as elaborate as its creator, and the location care to make them. Walls between toilet stalls have long been popular places for impromptu gloryholes to innocently slip a cock through and find out if there’s anyone on the other side. Today’s gloryholes are a far cry from the first known, which became famous in 1707 during an extortion case. Long popular at gay men’s bathhouses, many modern adult video arcades now feature them. This allows people of all sexual orientations who enjoy giving or receiving dick anonymously an opportunity to do so within a reasonably safe and clean environment.

Usually not more than three to six inches in diameter, the holes are ideally positioned so that a man of average height can stand and insert his penis. Likewise, this allows the person on the other side to bend forward for anal or vaginal penetration, or to kneel for fellatio. Sometimes they are best for voyeuristic purposes like sitting on a toilet or chair and watching whatever fun is taking place in the next stall over.

Part of what makes gloryholes so appealing is the chance to engage in sex with an unseen person without fear that your personal appearance will keep you from getting lucky. That doesn’t mean that personal hygiene isn’t important. Let’s face it, very few people want to suck or fuck a dick that smells or looks bad. Your chances of getting an anonymous hookup are greatly increased if your body is clean, or at least the part you plan to put into action during the encounter. Bring condoms, regardless of which side of the wall you plan to be on, and be gracious about using them if they are offered to you. After all, there’s a reason that gloryholes fell out of favor during the AIDS epidemic. Let’s learn from the fallen instead of joining them.

If your plan is to be the receptive partner and the stranger on the other side of the wall declines your kind offer of a prophylactic, unless you’re feeling invulnerable, move on. Find another stall, another viewing booth, another day, another venue. If the condom is accepted and applied, the fun can begin but don’t expect the dude with his dick through a hole to bring lube for you. Pack your favorite and bring it with you. Flavored, unlubricated condoms are a good investment if you plan to suck cock. My experience is that mint-flavored condoms were invented to make penetrative sex miserable by numbing the body parts in question, so it might be a good idea to avoid them unless that’s your thing.

The whole hygiene thing goes for bottoms, too. Wash your pussy or ass before you introduce them to a strange dick. Your odds of getting lucky will skyrocket and everyone will return to the outside world with a more positive take on the encounter.

Once you’re all clean and smelling fresh and suck or fuckable, the goal is to find someone to participate in joyful debauchery with. It’s possible that all you’ll have to do is look inside the room or stall and see a dick poking through the gloryhole, but chances are better than you won’t. And if it’s your dick that’s going to be doing the poking, then you probably don’t want to share a single gloryhole. The most common way to find out if the person on the other side of the barrier wants to play is for the receptive partner to tap the edge of the hole or do a ‘come hither’ finger gesture through it. Once the cock-contributor has this sign, they can mindfully present their erection for inspection.

Of course, even though you can’t always get a good look at the person on the other side of the wall, one or both of you may decide getting sexy isn’t a good idea, after all. That’s cool. Respect each other’s privacy, be polite, and either move on or enjoy yourself with yourself until the other side relents, or you’re done with your solo fun. If it is a lust connection, the polite Top doesn’t just shove their meat through the hole and down the throat of their new favorite stranger. You need to let people size up the situation, so to speak. It’s a collaboration, after all, so everybody gets a chance to contribute.

Because we are a shame-based society, gloryholes are not generally on the top 10 cleanest places to have sex list. Those in adult arcades, bathhouses, and sex/kink clubs are more likely to have paper towels and suitable cleaning supplies. It may not be fun to tidy up afterward, but the nicer locations stay that way with the help of their patrons. You don’t have to wipe down the lighting fixtures, but if bare skin or body fluids landed on it, the right thing to do is clean it the hell up before it becomes somebody else’s problem.

When the person getting their cock sucked or buried deep in the other person's ass or pussy is ready to cum, the ejaculator with good manners knocks on the wall to warn the person on the other side and give them time to decide where they want to the jizz to land.

Once the encounter is over and it’s time to clean up and go wherever it is that we are when we’re not at a gloryhole, don’t linger overlong. Some bottoms aren’t satisfied with just one dick and may move to one or more before deciding they’ve had enough. And chances are good that there are people waiting for the room or stall. Just because we’re violating the laws of God and man doesn’t mean we can’t be courteous about it.

Finally, remember that even if you didn’t get to see their face, the person on the other side of the wall regardless of whether they offered a dick, a mouth, an ass, a pussy, or all of the above is a person. And you, no matter what consensual part you played in the debauchery, are also a person. It can be enjoyable to pretend we’re dirty, bad, sinful, wicked creatures indulging our carnal lusts, but in the end, if we are mindful of some basic considerations, we’re all just people looking to get our variously configured rocks off without doing harm to ourselves or anyone else.