San Francis Lifts Gay Bathhoe Ban

Contents:

• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS REOPENS NEW LOTN
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• TWO PANMIC YEARS LATER, GAY BATHHOE ZONG BACK ON THE DOCKET IN SF
• GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND
• GALLERY: SAN FRANCIS GAY BATHHOE HISTORY, IN FLIERS [NSFW]
• EROSSAN FRANCISMENUHOTELS · LUXURYHOTELS · MID-RANGE + BUDGETBARSDANCE CLUBSCISE CLUBSSNASLBIAN BARS & CLUBSON TODAYTOURSCY GUIGAY MAPEROS
• PURPORTED NEW SF GAY BATHHOE BLOCKED BY ZONG ISSU
• SF POISED TO ALLOW GAY BATHHO TO RETURN
• SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS
• SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS RAC TO REOPEN NEW LOTN
• TWO PANMIC YEARS LATER, GAY BATHHOE ZONG BACK ON THE DOCKET IN SF
• GAY SEX VENU RETURN

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

-- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar 's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn.

Outsi lebacker Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player to e out as gay and to play a game Associated Prs ntributed to this report. 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.

SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS REOPENS NEW LOTN

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.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

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.

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.

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

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. 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.

He was a personal rrponnt wh Ana Bryant, disagreeg wh her ias on homosexualy. There is also a sex club, Eros, the Castro gayborhood, which had plied wh the aforementned l.

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

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.

-based profsnal league to e out as gay. Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St. While one potential gay bathhoe proprietor has cid agast pursug the bs, kk and other sex venu San Francis are planned or beg nsired.

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

The mov regardg gay bathho are g about as 's anticipated the Board of Supervisors will approve a change to the zong for such spac so that the bs n be nsired all parts of the cy. The queer man who was the first to quire wh gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Manlman about the prospect of openg a gay bathhoe has changed his md.

Curtis Chu, a gay would-be bathhoe proprietor, has also been touch wh Manlman's office. In the November story, Manlman ai Jab Btliff, a gay man, told the B. Currently, gay bathho are prohibed much of the cy.

EROSSAN FRANCISMENUHOTELS · LUXURYHOTELS · MID-RANGE + BUDGETBARSDANCE CLUBSCISE CLUBSSNASLBIAN BARS & CLUBSON TODAYTOURSCY GUIGAY MAPEROS

And AIDS had already begun ravagg the gay muny San Francis. The were snas and sex clubs where often newly liberated gay men would go to spend an eveng, or make a fal stop after a night of drkg or dancg — and historians say that SF's pneerg leather culture was alt a ath blow when the bathho at the time, there was no public-health nsens about whether bathho need to be closed, but had bee creasgly clear to cy officials that the cy's growg HIV epimic had at least somethg to do wh the ee-love and liberte sexual activi gog on the lol muny, and the bathho were one nex of 2020, Manlman proposed a repeal of the lol ordance that ma bathho — which were fed specifilly as munal baths or clubs which had rentable private rooms wh lockable doors — illegal.

PURPORTED NEW SF GAY BATHHOE BLOCKED BY ZONG ISSU

"Durg the 1970s and early 80s, bathho were a fol pot of gay social life San Francis and were important muny meetg plac where iends would gather to share stori, or watch a live show, " Manlman said a statement. Prevly: Supervisor Propos Re-Legalizg Gay Bathho In San Francis. In 1984, San Francis effectively shut down gay bathho a sperate attempt to curb HIV transmissn, assumg that the venu create what is prently referred to as “super sprear events.

Followg this troductn, I will tail the history of bathho wh San Francis and the broar gay muny, then exame the arguments that were ially ma favor of the closur. The Signifince of Bathho Gay Men’s Culture.

SF POISED TO ALLOW GAY BATHHO TO RETURN

While bathho have existed throughout history, they only solidified as gay stutns wh the last century. [iii] Gay bathho, ntrast, distguished themselv om the venu by permtg sex among members and by offerg food, entertament, and private rooms. The first Amerin gay bathho parable to what we see today opened the 1950s and ‘60s and exclively centered the social and erotic needs of gay men.

As Bebé argu, bathho preced the gay rights movement by providg men a social settg to assemble that rporated tablished health and safety polici—what some today would label a “safe space” to be gay.

Illegal, [and] gay men were forced to bee sexual outlaws.

SAN FRANCIS GAY SNAS

Once the Consentg Adult Sex Bill crimalized sodomy California 1976, the baths creasgly functned as cultural centers “that uld both shape and rpond to the rapid social, sexual, and polil chang that were takg place” by providg gay men an opportuny to specifilly teract wh other gay men. The Battle Over the “Gay Bathhoe” Experience.

SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS RAC TO REOPEN NEW LOTN

Dpe police mistreatment, bathho endured and grew as cultural centers for San Francis’s gay muny until 1984.

However, on March 27, at a meetg of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, Larry Ltlejohn, founr of the homophile anizatn Society for Individual Rights, troduced a municipal ballot iative that aimed to close down the baths as a rponse to the ragg AIDS epimic.

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

The followg morng, a lol gay newspaper published an article tled “Pri Founr Will Circulate Stop Sex Petn for Ballot, ” spreadg panic and forcg cy officials and muny members to formulate a public rponse to the proposed closur.

GAY SEX VENU RETURN

Many the muny risted the iative and particularly sgled out Ltlejohn as “Ltle Bra, ” “Judas Ltle John, ” and “the hemorrhoid on the asshole of the gay muny”–wh the fal ment g om the owner of another proment San Francis bathhoe. ” The prottors highlighted a legimate fear of gay crimalizatn and ernment tsn to their private nduct, pecially given the years of police mistreatment many had endured.

[xiv] Meanwhile, spe this public promise om Silverman, Mayor Feste surreptly orred San Francis police officers to beg surveillg bathho to report on the sexual activy of gay men. Unfortunately, and as Feste’s spy tactic mak clear, many s this simply meant articulatg fear at the lol level by targetg spac associated wh gay sexualy.

[xvi] The baths were a hub for outreach and tn, pecially for unrserved muni, cludg closeted men who were otherwise disnnected om gay culture. ”[xvii] Shortly thereafter, Silverman orred the closure of the baths and several other tablishments where gay men partook sex and reviewed them by name, statg, “the fourteen tablishments are not fosterg gay liberatn. A heterosexual judge wh no gay advisory mtee termed what was an acceptable venue for men who have sex wh men.