A Peek Unr the Towel: Insi the 500-Year History of Gay Bathho | Hor, the Queer Social Network

Contents:

• 8 POPULAR GAY HOTELS NEW YORK CY
• GAY BATHHOE EROS TO OPEN S NEW TENRLO LOTN FOR PRI WEEKEND
• A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
• THE BT GAY HOOK-UP SPOTS NYC
• THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• NEW YORK CY GAY BARS

8 POPULAR GAY HOTELS NEW YORK CY

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.

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

As a gay lol who has lived this giant cy for almost a , I’m exced to tell you all about all the most popular gay hotels New York Cy you should nsir for your next trip. Gay travelers stay all sorts of different hotels here, but there are a select few New York Cy gay hotels that are pecially popular for their unique sign, lotn, or parti they host.

It’s pretty much guaranteed that no matter what time of year you’re visg New York, you’ll fd plenty of other gay travelers stayg here as well. On 58th Street and 6th Avenue, 1 Hotel is jt a short walk om the Hell’s kchen gay neighborhood, which is perfect if you plan on explorg the neighborhood’s gay bars.

Other highlights clu a large urtyard pool, all sorts of unique room optns, and of urse, proximy to many of the bt NYC gay bars the Chelsea neighborhood. Many of Brooklyn’s huge gay circu parti aren’t far om The Williamsburg Hotel, so stayg this area will make your drive to lol clubs much quicker. If you n’t fd an affordable optn or the hotels you prefer don’t have any availabily, there are a uple of alternativ to bookg one of the New York Cy gay hotels mentned above.

A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO

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. The risks of police raids terred some men om steppg to a gay bathhoe, but ultimately the need for timate pannship outweighed the danger posed by police.

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. 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. Bathho Amerin ci first beme popular wh the general public the late 19th and early 20th centuri due to a lack of tenement plumbg and bathg facili, but would rema popular wh gay men long after bathtubs beme standard apartment featur.

The Everard NYC (which long ago received the nickname – The Everhard) was nverted om a church to a bathhoe 1888 and was known to have a gay clientele even before the roarg 1920’s. In addn to providg spac for gay men to meet and have sex, the baths also provid a type of muny space and meetg place for gay artists and tellectuals durg a time that gay sex was still punishable by law.

THE BT GAY HOOK-UP SPOTS NYC

Bathho would ntue to be one of the most popular plac for gay men to ngregate well after the morn gay rights movement began the late 1960’s wh the Stonewall rts. And though gay bathho saw a cle populary begng the 1980’s wh the advent of the AIDS epimic, many gay bathho ntue to fill the same functn they always have: a safe place to be gay and have gay sex.

The Everard Baths, one of the most legendary of New York’s bathho, was a refuge for gay men probably sce s openg 1888, but fely by World War I. One of the most legendary of New York’s bathho, the Everard Baths was a refuge for gay men probably sce s openg 1888, but, as documented, om at least World War I until s closg 1986. When exactly began to attract a predomantly gay, Ain-Amerin clientele is unknown, but was mostly likely the 1920s durg the Harlem Renaissance.

It served an important social service known for s emphasis on sex tn durg a perd when there were few AIDS/HIV outreach programs for gay men of lor and men who did not intify as gay, but had sex wh men. In the late 1960s, Steve Ostrow, an entreprenr and former opera sger, wanted to elevate the gay bathhoe experience om what were then seedy spac to an enhanced statn as a health club and spa. At s peak, the Baths had 400 private rooms and 2, 000 lockers servg up to 10, 000 diverse gay male patrons a week, some who would stay for an entire weekend.

THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977

Gay and the Village Voice vered the discrimatn, wh the Voice reportg that the ad-hoc gay rights group, the “Commtee to End Enticement and Entrapment, ” sent a large number of “Put an End to Police Abe” letters to Mayor Ldsay to prott the harassment. The same year, “The Rz, ” by playwright Terrance McNally and loosely based on the Baths, opened on Broadway (later turned to a film), which was one of the first plays wh unapologetic gay characters to reach a mastream dience. M., ne men — trapped si a buildg wh blocked-up wdows and no fire p — would not make out years after Stonewall, the tragedy at the Everard Baths — never vtigated as anythg but an accintal mattrs fire — marked the begng of the end of a brief, exuberant heyday of New York Cy gay life that was able to thrive part bee of cheap real tate and a cy ernment that was willg to look the other way when me to, say, S&M clubs like the Mhaft the Meatpackg District (drs clud no logne).

But even as the '70s New York were a relatively open, excg time to be a gay man New York — pri paras, gay bars and clubs proliferatg, a mastream weekly gay newspaper, a gay rights prott at the 1976 Democratic Natnal Conventn New York — beg openly gay, whether on the street or the workplace, still me wh dangers. The bathhoe had long been an anonymo space where gay men uld be themselv whout shame — but the fire at the Everard rerced the ia for many queer men that the few spac they thought were tly their own weren't always safe.

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

Everard Baths was not jt any gay bathhoe; the wrer Michael Rumaker, his acunt of gog to the baths (A Day and a Night at the Baths) for the first time the wter of 1977, lled Everard "the most venerable, loathed, and affectnately teemed baths all of New York Cy. " Everard (or "Ever-hard, " as was nicknamed) had opened as a Turkish bath 1888, but by the 1920s had bee a known, and culturally signifint, gatherg place for gay men.

Author Gore Vidal met his longtime partner, Howard Aten, at Everard 1950; over the years Everard was reportedly vised by the wrer Tman Capote, theater director Aled Lunt, the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, and gay rights activist and wrer Larry his memoir Cy Boy: My Life New York Durg the 1960s and 1970s, Edmund Whe remembers the Everard as "filthy... "Ined, was an important and, s when much of gay life was lived secret, necsary space for gay men to associate wh each other — and, particularly for closeted men, a safe place to meet and have sex wh other men.

NEW YORK CY GAY BARS

Bathho are private and exclive; whereas anyone generally has accs to other gay male spac, like bars and clubs, bathho were, and ntue to be, exclively for gay men — and th play a unique and signifint role gay life. They generally existed on the g of lawfulns; the Everard, along wh other gay bathho New York Cy, were perdilly raid by police, wh a few people beg rted off to jail for lewd behavr now and then, but generally left alone — the ultimate "don't ask, don't tell.

And th the fire shone a not-totally-wele light not jt on New York gay life, but also on the cy's negligence makg sure the buildg was up to .