San Francis tells gay bathho, "Wele back!" :: Bay Area Reporter

Contents:

• GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND
• SAN FRANCIS TELLS GAY BATHHO, "WELE BACK!"
• SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS REOPENS NEW LOTN
• GALLERY: SAN FRANCIS GAY BATHHOE HISTORY, IN FLIERS [NSFW]
• TWO PANMIC YEARS LATER, GAY BATHHOE ZONG BACK ON THE DOCKET IN SF
• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND

When the 30-year-old bathhoe and sna Eros left ’s old home on Market Street near the Castro December 2021, the cy's only remag gay sex club said they had a new home led up.

For the first time nearly four s operators of tradnal gay bathho n once aga seek perms to open San Francis. Those regulatns, when put to effect, rulted a facto ban on gay bathho San Francis, leavg rints to have to travel to such bs Berkeley and San Jose. Due to the COVID-19 panmic, the lone gay bathhoe left the Bay Area is Steamworks the East Bay and remas closed bee of the health crisis.

While gay sex clubs whout private, locked rooms ntued to operate the cy, most eventually closed their doors. Whether is signifint on the ground pends on if entreprenrs wh the visn and fancial paci and the savvy to open n and operate one of the, " said gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Manlman of the liftg of the old bathhoe l. Many of the cy's gay bathho were loted the South of Market neighborhood on or near Folsom Street.

SAN FRANCIS TELLS GAY BATHHO, "WELE BACK!"

So many gay-related venu, om bathho and sex clubs to bars and stor terg to leather fetishists, were loted the area by the 1970s that was known as the Miracle Mile. Allowg for the reopeng of tradnal gay bathho uld be a boost for lears of the area's Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District as they try to prerve the neighborhood as an LGBTQ enclave.

Wh life not expected to return to a sense of normalcy until late 2021, a gay bathhoe uld be ready to open jt as the health crisis fully subsis. The panmic has certaly affected many of the bs our area, " said Robert Goldfarb, a gay man who is the print of the SOMA LGBTQ cultural district's board. He hop a gay bathhoe operator will e forward to open a lotn San Francis.

SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS REOPENS NEW LOTN

While he believ there are potential lotns to suate a gay bathhoe the Castro, Manlman told the B. San Francis's last remag gay sex club is reopeng s doors time for Pri weekend.

After vatg their former space on upper Market Street December, Eros's owners began remolg and movg to their new home, where the gay Bulldog Baths had operated the late 1970s and 1980s.

Eros is not a tradnal gay bathhoe that do not have locked rooms. "We have been able to weather the cris of AIDS and STIs, the dg crisis, and we fd ourselv the only gay mercial sex venue to rema bs post the COVID-imposed closur, " said Rowe, referrg to the closure 2020 of SOMA sex club Blow Buddi. They did so at the urgg of gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Manlman, who had led the earlier ph to allow bathho to aga operate the cy.

GALLERY: SAN FRANCIS GAY BATHHOE HISTORY, IN FLIERS [NSFW]

It pav the way for gay bathho and other adult sex venu to open the Castro, Tenrlo, and most of South of Market whout the need to receive approval om the planng missn.

A dog groomer and kennel g the name of the old gay bathhoe had operated the space followed by an artist llective prr to Eros takg over the lease. An extraordary, glimpse to the pre-AIDS gay sexual culture, "The Fairoaks Baths" is an exhib of Polaroids taken by Frank Melleno durg the sprg and summer of 1978 at the Fairoaks Hotel, a San Francis bathhoe.

There is no other llectn of photographs that so clearly visualiz this perd bathhoe imag and more will be on display at the Llie-Lohman Prce Street Project Space (tails below) and also clud are imag om the Fairoaks Pri Para float om that same Fairoaks Baths:Photographs by Frank MellenoPolaroids om a San Francis bathhoe 1978Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art (Prce Street Project Space)127-B Prce StreetNew York, NY 10012July 12-13, Openg receptn July 11, 6-8 p. The gay revolutn was full flower -- sexy, charged wh self, admtg no shadows. He'd been a member of the '70s gay mune that went on to purchase and nvert a fad but wonrfully tact Victorian apartment buildg on the edge of a black ghetto to a gay bathhoe.

TWO PANMIC YEARS LATER, GAY BATHHOE ZONG BACK ON THE DOCKET IN SF

It lerally stood alone, at the tersectn of Oak and Steer streets, perched on a hill overlookg the lower Hay Valley district; an urban patch not yet gentrified by the cy's swellg ti of gay Boomers and some distance om the neighborhoods they typilly Fairoaks' existence was short-lived -- 1977 to 1979 -- but fondly relled by s patrons for a number of thgs.

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

For one, was a racially clive place for gay men to have sex, unlike some of the cy's hot spots that were ls welg of people of lor.

Members of the groups were enuraged by the offer of a ee locker to spend the eveng and this helped foster a more faiar and timate atmosphere than was mon other gay bathho of the era. Many of those men, like a great number of Fairoaks patrons, are no longer alive -- taken by the plague of AIDS that would cimate the cy's gay populatn jt another few a strg of black pearls, San Francis's bathho adorned the cy wh a touch of louche glamour before they were officially closed October 1984. Wh a historian's eye and gay activist's zeal, he ptured the agile, fun, and always fantastic life the Fairoaks Hotel.