You might think police raids of gay cruising are an anachronism, a relic of oppression that has since been vanquished as society becomes more tolerant. But trial attorney Abbie Cuellar, who is representing one of the 13 men arrested in a recent gay sex sting operation in Broward County, near Miami, will remind you that’s not necessarily the case.

On July 25, Cuellar’s client was arrested for having consensual sexual activity with another man behind closed doors in Pleasure Emporium, an adult boutique in Hollywood, Florida. (Her client wishes to remain anonymous for the purposes of this story to avoid further damaging his reputation.) His name and photograph were subsequently published in multiple local media outlets following the arrest, including in the Miami Herald. Cuellar says he has lost his job, and he quickly fell into a deep depression.

“It makes me feel like we’re back in the '60s and we’re in New York City, back when the bars were being raided,” Cuellar tells them. over the phone. “How is it different?”

Cuellar’s client was born in Cuba and faced persecution there, she says. He was thrown out of school and rejected by his family for being gay. He later became a doctor there, but ultimately came to the United States 20 years ago seeking a better, more open life. He became a registered nurse, and received great feedback at his job. His life came crashing down, however, after he was publicly humiliated following his arrest.

“He had a very good position at a hospital in Broward. He was terminated on Monday a few days after the incident,” Cuellar says. “He had no opportunity to explain himself. He was humiliated. When he tried to access his email, it had been blocked. They sent him a letter saying he was terminated due to him being arrested, and he was indeed terminated on Monday.”

Cuellar says she visited Pleasure Emporium, where the sting was carried out, to see if it was possible that her client’s activity could be seen by any member of the general public. “You can’t go back there unless you pay the front desk person to use the theater, or go into one of the private rooms, and you get escorted back there,” she says. “You can’t get into the theater otherwise. These rooms are locked. You can’t see in them unless you’re seven feet tall.”

Cuellar says Hollywood PD officers allegedly went undercover at Pleasure Emporium and encouraged the unsuspecting men to commit sexual acts. She says the officers allowed the men to complete the sexual acts, then allowed them to leave before arresting them. “If they touched themselves for one second, then under the police department’s logic, wouldn’t that have been enough?” she asks.

According to the Miami New Times, which took a critical stance of the Hollywood PD’s actions, this isn’t the first time Pleasure Emporium has been raided — six other men were arrested in February, and the latest sting was carried out after complaints were allegedly called in to the police department. When the Miami New Times questioned the police department’s actions, police department representatives maintained they felt the raid was worthwhile. Ultimately, 11 of the men were arrested on charges of "public exposure of genital organs," while the other two were accused of committing "unnatural and lascivious acts" in public.

When the Miami New Times reached out to the Miami Herald to question why it published the names and faces of the men arrested, the Herald rescinded that sensitive information and issued an editor’s note that portions had been removed due to content not meeting the paper’s standards.