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Some offered full restaurants and nightclub entertainment in addition to fitness equipment and saunas. The first American gay bathhouses comparable to what we see today opened in the 1950s and ‘60s and exclusively centered the social and erotic needs of gay men. Membership was driven by a common desire to engage with other members, while other similar venues operated as brothels, where membership was a means to sex with employees. Bathhouses also offered patrons rooms with locking doors, a key feature distinguishing these venues from sex clubs. Despite most jurisdictions criminalizing sex among men, these early bathhouses catered to a mixed male clientele, serving those seeking social networking as well as providing a space for anonymous sexual encounters.
Gay bathhouses, in contrast, distinguished themselves from these venues by permitting sex among members and by offering food, entertainment, and private rooms. Early American bathhouses evolved out of traditional 1920s and ‘30s Turkish and Russian baths, which offered communal hot tubs and showers to all men. While bathhouses have existed throughout history, they only solidified as gay institutions within the last century. The Significance of Bathhouses in Gay Men’s Culture As I hope to illuminate, these decisions were emotional and driven by fear however, given current knowledge of the science around transmission, city officials were able to revisit this issue-setting a precedent that any policies that regulate LGBTQI+ sexuality based on fear of HIV should be revisited through the lens of current practices. I will then examine the steps taken in the past several years to finally counter these arguments and reverse the ban in city regulation. įollowing this introduction, I will detail the history of bathhouses within San Francisco and the broader gay community, then examine the arguments that were initially made in favor of the closures. This paper will tell the story of advocacy that led to a better alignment of city regulations with contemporary scientific and community practices, and argue that, when properly operated, bathhouses assist, rather than impede, efforts to control the transmission of HIV, as well as other STIs. In 2020, this new understanding of HIV transmission-aided by pointed advocacy and community engagement-finally opened the door for bathhouses to return when Supervisor Raphael Mandelman introduced a measure to lift the ban that the city’s Board of Supervisors ultimately approved.
Given PrEP and a deeper understanding of the mechanics of transmission, society can now take proactive steps to arrest the spread of the virus. These closures illustrate a fear-based reaction that resulted from a limited knowledge of HIV. In 1984, San Francisco effectively shut down gay bathhouses in a desperate attempt to curb HIV transmission, assuming that these venues create what is presently referred to as “super spreader events.” Despite changes in the global understanding of HIV and scientific advances in medication, these cultural centers remained effectively banned for over 36 years.