The Towleroad blog has a great post that reviss New York’s first rerd anti-gay raid on the Ariston Baths Manhattan 1903. And though I was never an aficnado of the Bathhoe scene, the gay history buff me cid to do some rearch and even I was a b surprised by the strong
Contents:
- DID CLOSG NEW YORK CY BATHHO THE 1980S STRIP DIGNY OM GAY MEN?
- A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
- A BRIEF POLIL—AND PERSONAL—HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
- EXPLORG THE REVIVAL OF GAY BATHHO NEW YORK CY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY
- A S-OLD BAN ON GAY BATHHO WAS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED. THEN, A PANMIC.
- THE CONTENTAL BATHS: THE GAY BATHHOE THAT BIRTHED ELECTRONIC MIC LEGENDS
DID CLOSG NEW YORK CY BATHHO THE 1980S STRIP DIGNY OM GAY MEN?
* nyc gay bathhouses 1980s *
Timothy Lyle, assistant profsor of English at Iona College (at left), and Stephen Engel, associate profsor of polics at Bat, prent rearch argug that the 1980s closure of New York Cy’s gay bathho was an act of “digny takg” om the gay muny.
“The gay bathhoe took on an even more symbolic value wh the ntext of the 1970s when queer sex acts were articulated as a kd of liberatn om heteronormative nstrats.
“So to enterta any notn that the closur damaged the digny of gay men, we mt rist the urge to pathologize the public, anonymo, and sual sex stutns, ” Lyle said. Workg wh bath owners, anizatns such as the Coaln for Sexual Rponsibily and Gay Men’s Health Crisis unrtook substantial mpaigns to promote safer sex and to make remendatns, to be backed by spectns, for tnal, hygienic, and stctural improvements the bathho. The gay muny’s effort to support the bathho, signed to balance health (and polil) imperativ wh sex-posivy and muny solidary, was aligned wh some official ristance to closg the baths, part on the grounds that closur would nstute excsive ernment terference.
A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
The gay scene of New York Cy was promently thst to the public eye 1969, after rts at a Greenwich Village bar. But existed long before that. * nyc gay bathhouses 1980s *
“The bathhoe closur perpetuated [a narrative of gay] culpabily, igned pretty ser divisns wh the gay and lbian muni, and produced wh gay men, I thk, a ep distst and even fear of ernment — and one another, to be hont. Nstutnal matter, ” he said, the cisn still privileg those gay unns that are moled after heterosexual marriage, while ignorg “other kds of nnectn at the heart of a queer ethic of public sex.
A BRIEF POLIL—AND PERSONAL—HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
But a prcriptn for the dg is overpriced, heavily regulated, and acpanied by data llectn that Lyle characterized as state surveillance of gay men’s private liv.
“This approach to health, ” he argued, “is problematilly entangled palistic enterpris and state-directed efforts to surveil, police, and make cisns for gay men. In other words, Engel said, ncealed wh the seemg progrs of sanctned gay marriage and of sex ma safe by Tvada is the same old refal to prehend “queer world-makg practic.
In an attempt to make The Sat profable, he opened the club to straight patrons on Fridays and ntued operatg until May 1988, when closed due to the loss of s re dience of whe, gay men. Dpe survivg 100 years of police harassment, though, the gay bathho of New York Cy uldn’t survive the homophobia of Mayor Ed Koch, who shut most of them down durg the HIV epimic. 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.
EXPLORG THE REVIVAL OF GAY BATHHO NEW YORK CY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNY
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. 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. 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.
A S-OLD BAN ON GAY BATHHO WAS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED. THEN, A PANMIC.
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.
THE CONTENTAL BATHS: THE GAY BATHHOE THAT BIRTHED ELECTRONIC MIC LEGENDS
Freeman regnized the historil importance, rtored the imag and created the Fairoaks than a pictorial rerd of a bygone scene -- or even of passg strangers wh sticky feet -- the photographs open a door to a secret gay world of sexual enunter and sweet nocence the lik of which will never be seen aga. At the Fairoaks he worked as a DJ, and receptnist, and was a proud member of the Fairoaks "fay crew" om s ArmsTwo guys towels talkg near the snack bar the mon area of the Pri #1The Fairoaks float at the 1978 Gay Pri Para San Francis was a flatbed tck rated wh furnure om the Fairoaks lounge. The hood ornament is wearg a Fairoaks T-shirt and straddlg a prott sign about the Briggs iative, which would have banned gay and "gay-sympathetic" teachers om classrooms California, and did not Pri #8Taken om the ont of the Fairoaks float for the 1978 Gay Pri Para, lookg ahead at the para and by-stanrs.
Neher of the owners was willg to scribe his profs tail but both said that if they were not makg money they would close their doors, as five other lol bathho have done recent for EdutnWh nearly 14, 000 s of AIDS reported natnwi, 6, 700 New York, homosexual men are creasgly llg for the closg of the baths, and many are cricizg homosexuals who prof om their Governor Cuomo and Mayor Koch are rensirg their posns that such plac, licensed by the cy's Health Department, are eful foms for tg homosexuals about the sexual practic that spread acquired immune ficiency syndrome, which is ually fatal. Marks and the East Si Sna, at 227 East 56th Street, between Third and Send Avenu, are currently pliance wh guil drafted by a homosexual group lled the Coaln for Sexual Rponsibily that were remend to Governor Cuomo by his AIDS Advisory Council as an alternative to closg the bathho. Mailman argue that bathho are a necsary element of the homosexual Schwartz said he viewed the East Si Sna as ''so much ls timidatg than gay bars'' and th a more sympathetic meetg place.
Marks Place was a Turkish bath om 1906 until the late 1970's, when the elrly of the Lower East Si briefly shared the facili wh a nighttime clientele of homosexuals. And though I was never an aficnado of the Bathhoe scene, the gay history buff me cid to do some rearch and even I was a b surprised by the strong historil and social signifince bathho have had on the gay muny Ameri.