No Blue Balls in the Bluegrass State: 2024 Cruising Trends with Sniffies Download
Since 2018, Sniffies has been putting queers on the map. Literally. The web app uses a geolocation interface that helps cruisers – mostly queer men – find one another through a real-time, often anonymous exchange of physical traits and sexual preferences. Grindr meets Nextdoor.
Sniffies is certainly a grower, with some reports estimating user counts at more than 900,000. In a 2021 Slate interview with Rhodes Murphy, Chief Marketing Officer Eli Martin said Sniffies got its name from an earlier site intended for trading underwear. The domain, Martin said, was too good not to keep.
In whiffing range of the second T**** administration, there’s something uplifting about queer people having access to something so unabashedly cheeky, sex-positive, and communal. Vanilla hermit that I am, I’d never logged into the Sniffies site before this assignment. I’ve dabbled with Grindr – I’m still bitter about the weed you stole in 2012, Derek – and some of my earliest stomping grounds were in the chatrooms of Myspace and Yahoo. I’ve decided cruising isn’t for me, but I’m no judge of fellow adults in pursuit of what safely and fully satisfies them.
Looking at Sniffies for the first time, I can understand the appeal. Daily use of the site would make me so much better at geography than any educator ever could. You learn a good deal about your neighborhood, and the interactive map is easy to explore. Zoom in on a park and see who is chatting about arriving there, or who is waiting. See who in your city is willing to host. Who around the corner might share your kinks, or offer something you’ve pondered trying?
I knew I was a short walk from two Little Free Libraries, but I didn’t realize I was also a block away from a glory hole. New cruisers pop up with their individual desires and offers for connection. They declare who they are, where they’re headed, when they’ve arrived, and what they want. Click individual profiles or locations, and you’ll find little left to the imagination: age, height, weight, penis size, body type, persona (Guy Next Door, for example, which I’d argue applies to everyone).
A leather daddy is parked and ready; here’s the color and make of his car. Across town is a bisexual trucker in his backseat, and the door is unlocked. A sporty pup is waiting in a stall. The restroom, the park, the apartment two streets away … all over, queer adults are engaging in queer adult behavior. And even though hookups aren’t exactly for me, I know plenty of people who thrive on them. I’ll be the last one to turn my nose up at their fun.
So here’s the Sniffies Download 2024, highlighting the site’s trends with metrics and the results of Kentuckians sniffing around and finding out.
Top Cruising Spots
The park (good old Cherokee, I’d wager) and the intriguing “Others” tied for second-best cruising spots, making restrooms the state’s most frequented cruising locale. Last year’s top spot was the airport. Cruisers may be flying less, but they’re certainly getting around. Altogether, not a far cry from the top cruising spots of the 1480s in Florence, Italy: streets, private homes, workshops, and taverns (courtesy of Michael Rocke’s remarkable Forbidden Friendships).
Restroom (25%)
Park (21%)
Residential Tower (17%)
Gym (10%)
Bar (6%)
Others (21%)
Kink Breakdown
Appropriately, edging is slowly reaching the top spot – Sniffies reported it as the site’s top kink in the nation last year. As for Kentucky’s favorite individual kink, I’m not sure what “porn” really entails. Watching porn together, reenacting it? I’m even more curious about the 41% lumped together as “Others” … it’s giving Lost. (And that show edged us for years.)
Porn (8.6%)
Facials (7.1%)
Cum-play (7.0%)
Edging (6.8%)
Groups (6.4%)
Gloryholes (5.5%)
Freeballing (5.2%)
Sex-toys (5.2%)
Spanking (3.7%)
Age-play (3.6%)
Others (41%)
Position Breakdown
The obliging nature of being vers lends itself to cruising, so it makes sense to see that position top this category (this time around). Interestingly, tops bumped into second place after ranking below bottoms in 2023.
Also, it seems you’ll have an easier time finding a legendary Pokémon on Sniffies than a sub top (2%) or a power bottom (1%). And if Bernie’s right, that the one percent really does own a third of the country’s wealth … well, I can’t think of anyone more deserving than power bottoms.
Vers (21%)
Top (18%)
Bottom (15%)
Vers-top (12%)
Vers-bottom (11%)
Bottom-sub (10%)
Top-dom (5%)
Side (5%)
Top-sub (2%)
Power-bottom (1%)
Horniest Cities (Most Sessions)
Putting the “Oh!” in 502, Louisville again ranks as the horniest city with the most Sniffies sessions in Kentucky. Are y’all surprised? No. Is Louisville horny? Well, look at the numbers: an average of 6,028 cruising sessions a day in 2024. How La Grange – with a population around 10,400 – is just behind Lexington, I do not know. I’m impressed. I’m intimidated. I’m a little scared. And as a Louisvillian, I must be horny.
Sessions in 2024:
Louisville (2.2M)
Lexington (999k)
La Grange (960k)
Most Attended Group
Wishin’ and hopin’ and jerkin’ and suckin’
Pumpin’ and dumpin’ each night in his arms …
Most Attended Group will always be Orgy’s to lose, so there’s no room for surprise to see it finish first. Sidenote: Lewis Carroll wrote the riddle, Why is a raven like a writing desk? This assignment has prompted me to wonder what the difference is between a “cum dump” and a “pump and dump.” After destroying my google algorithm and disturbing the poor FBI agent monitoring me, I may have an answer. Cum-dumping prioritizes penetrative partners ejaculating inside their receptive partners. Pump and dumps, not to be confused with pump-and-dump securities fraud, are essentially one-night stands that rhyme. No emotional connection, just the erection.
Orgy (229)
Jerkin and Suckin (159)
Cum dump (140)
Pump and dump (122)
xxxperience (109)
Hotel Pump and Dump (104)
Sexual Orientation Breakdown
This is a pronounced lead for the gays compared to 2023, when bisexual and straight-curious people represented the majority of cruisers. What inspired this surge of gayness? Chappell Roan? The eclipse? The sex scenes from Fellow Travelers? Perhaps the curious cruisers put down their reservations and picked up their gay cards. (Welcome! Took you long enough, but we’re happy to have you.)
Gay (63%)
Bi (20%)
Bicurious (8%)
Straight-curious (5%)
Straight (4%)
Dick Size: 6.9 inches
Inflation strikes again. Sniffies’ average penis size in 2023 was reported at 6.2 inches, or 15.75 centimeters if you’re feeling British. Researchers continue to find the average erect penis actually flexes somewhere between 5.1 and 5.5 inches long and 4.6 to 4.8 inches thick. (But you know what? Fantasy is fun. Exaggerate away! Life is short. Not mine though. Mine’s huge.)
City with Most Increased Activity from 2024
La Grange, the Kindness Capital of Kentucky, continues to soar with the most sessions growth at 880%. That number follows a staggering 2,717% increase from 2023. Louisville and Lexington trail behind La Grange here, but keep in mind that 568% and 736% growth, respectively, involve much larger populations. (Please note: I am not a size queen or mathematician.)
Sessions growth in 2024:
La Grange (+880%)
Lexington (+736%)
Louisville (+568%)