A Brief Polil—and Personal—History of Gay Bathho ‹ Lerary Hub

Contents:

• GALLERY: SAN FRANCIS GAY BATHHOE HISTORY, IN FLIERS [NSFW]
• A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS REOPENS NEW LOTN
• SAN FRANCIS TELLS GAY BATHHO, "WELE BACK!"
• THE HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO. 1984
• HISTORIC GAY BATHHOE NOW TRANSFORMED TO PUPPY PARADISE
• TWO PANMIC YEARS LATER, GAY BATHHOE ZONG BACK ON THE DOCKET IN SF
• A S-OLD BAN ON GAY BATHHO WAS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED. THEN, A PANMIC.
• A BRIEF POLIL—AND PERSONAL—HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO

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

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

The gay muny had achieved a lot of liberatn and a lot of promence San Francis over the seventi and on to the early eighti, and I thought that closg the bathho would really be a polil setback. The Rch Street Baths, we thought we'd take a look back on some of the fliers om the plac, which were a primary sexual outlet for the cy's gay muny long before Grdr was even a possibily. 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.

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

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. 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. 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.

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.

SF GAY SEX CLUB EROS REOPENS NEW LOTN

”[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. Naively believed where we engaged sex was a risk associated wh AIDS, ” then specified that “there is no scientific evince provg bathho, or sex clubs, are more rponsible than hotel rooms or bedrooms for gays ntractg AIDS.

They acknowledged that the baths have provid a safer and private place for all gay men to ngregate whout fear of vlence or heteronormative social nsequenc and that, particular, baths provi accs to queer spac to young men between the ag of 18 and 20 who are prohibed om enterg bars and clubs.

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. -- 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.

SAN FRANCIS TELLS GAY BATHHO, "WELE BACK!"

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.

"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. Certa officials San Francis's ernment, and members of s gay/lbian/bisexual muny, strongly disagreed over whether the bs should be closed, should make their own AIDS-preventn efforts, or should ntue operatg unr new regulatns.

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. 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.

THE HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO. 1984

In the send half of the twentieth century, gay and lbian spac and anizatns San Francis created formidable astctur of support, accumulated rourc and expand both knowledge regim and the horizon of possibili for queer people that extend far beyond the cy self. Footnote 2 However, the public perceptn of AIDS as a ‘gay disease’ and the medilizatn of the gay male body and s physil and discursive spac domated early bat, pecially around gay bathhoe closur 1983–84. Many gay and bisexual San Francis rints exprsed their sexual inti the 1970s through open participatn sexual activi and out of the cy's bars and clubs wh the safeguard of ee and readily available treatment of sexually transmted diseas.

HISTORIC GAY BATHHOE NOW TRANSFORMED TO PUPPY PARADISE

Footnote 3 Throughout the followg , facg tense scty and wispread hysteria about gay sexual practic and the diseased gay body, they had to addrs the role of sex homosexual urban cultur. Begng by explorg the historil velopment and meang of gay bathho and sex clubs the 1970s, I then exame how bat about their closure the lol prs and among gay and lbian anizatns and ernment agenci the begng of the AIDS panmic shaped public disurse about gay sexual practic and the medilizatn of homosexualy.

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

The ‘emplaced empathy’ associated wh this activism, which I trace the analysis of a prott that led to the occupatn of a public plaza San Francis, the ARC/AIDS Vigil, between 1985 and 1990, emphasized the shared humany between homosexual and heterosexual urban rints reprented by the faiar inographi of domticy and ath.

Footnote 7 The foc on urban entreprenrialism and the neoliberal enomic reforms poed by Cy Hall ntributed to a crisis affordabily that me to a head the followg s and the disposssn of workg- and middle-class homosexual rints om the spac that they had appropriated and renovated the 1970s. Footnote 8 The third ntributor was the nsolidatn of a new amework for reprentg homosexualy the urban landspe and popular culture that foced on homosexual and heterosexual rints’ shared humany (rather than divergent sexualy) and rmed a large part of gay and lbian activism metropolan environments. In San Francis, particular, acunts of sexual activi public baths before 1960 reveal the -existence of the more ‘tradnal’ functns of bathg and relaxatn wh the facilatn of homosexual enunters that uld take place the sna or steam room and other semi-private lotns.

A S-OLD BAN ON GAY BATHHO WAS ABOUT TO BE LIFTED. THEN, A PANMIC.

Footnote 15 Communy historian and gay activist Allan Bébé wrote a history of San Francis gay bathho up to 1984, prompted by bat about their closure due to the spread of AIDS that year.

Footnote 16 Bébé argued that when the first gay bathho emerged San Francis the 1920s and 1930s they provid an unprecented gree of secury, where homosexual men uld meet each other semi-private environments, and exprs their sexualy ways other than ‘servicg straight men’ anonymoly cisg areas such as Unn Square and Goln Gate Park.

Footnote 18 As gay bathho gaed populary wh ary service members statned San Francis durg World War II, for whom gay bars, unlike baths, were ‘off lims’, more baths opened as ‘explicly gay stutns’ immediately after the war.

A BRIEF POLIL—AND PERSONAL—HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO

Footnote 19 In the 1960s, attempts by the cy to close gay bathho on moral grounds, which ultimately failed, galvanized the creasgly policized gay and lbian rints, and by the followg gay baths were celebrated as muny stutns that monstrated gay pri. Footnote 22 For many of their visors, bathho and sex clubs were adult playgrounds where they celebrated not only sex but also the new possibili that the environments, which were no longer targets of systematic police raids, offered for the velopment of gay and lbian urban cultur based on the celebratn of bodily physily and eroticism.

Reprentatns of gay bathho advertisg the 1970s and early 1980s that clud ads on public billboards (Figure 1) were a far cry om earlier pictns of them as dgy, dirty and dangero spac the g of gay male urban culture. As more and more gay men moved to the Castro, for example, a lol bathhoe nverted massage rooms to private cubicl where men uld have sex, much to the dismay of old heterosexual rints who spend their patronage.