In which The Gay Recluse sponsors a competition. Sort of.

After our recent post about the smokin’ hot statuary on Audubon Terrace in Washington Heights, a reader wrote to ask if we were aware of other such collections, particularly in the United States, where — in case you haven’t noticed — the puritanical impulse runs pretty deep. Frankly, we have no idea! Hence, we have decided to sponsor a competition to determine which Stateside neighborhood has the the most smokin’ hot statuary: the way we look at it, Washington Heights is pretty much at the top of the mountain unless or until we are knocked off.

The rules:

• The statues must be in (at least) a quasi-public place — as opposed to a private collection — in which members of the general public can observe the statuary in question without paying an admission fee.
• The statues must be in the United States (because everyone knows Europe is basically overflowing with hot gay statues); that said, we won’t discourage our European readers (or anyone else) from submitting snaps, although you obviously won’t be eligible for the top designation.
• Statues of either gender are acceptable, but we expect photographs to be taken with a “gay eye” and we will judge entries accordingly.
• Obviously, the statues must be smokin’ hot.

Got it? Send pix to us at thegayrecluse[at]gmail.com and we will post the best ones (or for that matter, even the mediocre ones). The winner — if there even is one, given that we don’t expect anywhere to seriously challenge Audubon Terrace/Washington Heights — will be announced at the end of 2008. Or maybe sooner. Election night, to distract us from the pain? Who knows. We look forward to hearing from you.

Can you do better than this? We’d like to see you try.