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

Contents:

• SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS
• GAY SAN FRANCIS
• GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND
• SAN FRANCIS TELLS GAY BATHHO, "WELE BACK!"
• GALLERY: SAN FRANCIS GAY BATHHOE HISTORY, IN FLIERS [NSFW]

SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS

Popular gay cise club San Francis (sce 1992). There is also a sex club, Eros, the Castro gayborhood, which had plied wh the aforementned l. The le change at a time when many LGBTQ+ neighborhoods -- and gay bars and bathho -- are beg cimated by the enomic nsequenc of the panmic.

The Castro, an endurg symbol of LGBTQ+ history, stands as Ameri's pneerg gayborhood and headquarters of the gay liberatn movement post-Stonewall. 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.

GAY SAN FRANCIS

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.

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

Many of the cy's gay bathho were loted the South of Market neighborhood on or near Folsom Street.

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.

SAN FRANCIS TELLS GAY BATHHO, "WELE BACK!"

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. While he believ there are potential lotns to suate a gay bathhoe the Castro, Manlman told the B.

To unrstand the eply felt antagonism around bathhoe closur, ’s helpful to unrstand the role the baths played the liv of gay men. In the early 1980s, as AIDS began to cimate the gay muny of San Francis, a battle broke out over the role that gay bathho might play the spread of HIV.

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

On the other si stood the gay bathhoe proprietors, San Francis AIDS Foundatn, the San Francis Human Rights Commissn, a handful of polis, the gay prs, and most — but certaly not all — of the gay muny. To unrstand the eply felt antagonism to closg the baths, ’s helpful to unrstand gay history and the role the baths played the liv of gay men the world over.

But the post-Stonewall 1970s, gay life me kickg and screamg out of the closet. Gay magaz proliferated; gay bs thrived; gay artists and micians began achievg mastream succs. Acrdgly, as gay men stopped nyg their sexual urg, the bathho thrived.

No wonr then that when the Cy wanted to close the bathho, was seen by many as an anti-gay, anti-sex — an attempt to drive all back to the closet.