To unrstand the eply felt antagonism around bathhoe closur, ’s helpful to unrstand the role the baths played the liv of gay men.
Contents:
- A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
- A BRIEF POLIL—AND PERSONAL—HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
- THE HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO. 1984
- BEFORE IT BURNED DOWN, THIS BATHHOE SERVED AS A HAVEN FOR NEW YORK CY’S GAY COMMUNY
- DID CLOSG NEW YORK CY BATHHO THE 1980S STRIP DIGNY OM GAY MEN?
- SAN DIEGO'S GAY BATHHO, WILD LIFE OF OUR FOREIGN BBI, BT LIGHT THE CY
A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
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 * history of gay bathhouses *
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. I met a handsome Black man wh dreadlocks a gay bar lled The Fireplace on the edge of Dupont Circle, and after a few rounds of drks, we left to go have sex only to disver that neher of uld take the actn back to where we lived. So, by the late 1970s, you uld roll your ey at the opponents of gay sexual liberatn as you walked to the Roman Holiday Spa Los Angel; or the Nob Hill Theater San Francis; or Man’s Country Chigo; or the Olympic Baths Washgton, D.
A BRIEF POLIL—AND PERSONAL—HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
Public policy regardg bathho has been cricized as beg based on polil expediency rather than on medil or social science. To affect that shortg, we clu here a brief history of gay bathho. The history of the baths is rarely told, but whenever is told necsarily refle … * history of gay bathhouses *
Here’s how the distorted story go: gay bathho, sex clubs, and porn theaters had no reemg social value and were purely an outgrowth of the immoral, dg-fueled, hedonistic liftyle of queer men, and closg the lewd dwellgs durg the AIDS crisis the 1980s was the pnt cisn. Then when spurred to actn, a host of elected officials ed the public health crisis as a pretense to enact measur that had long been on their polil wish list—for stance, closg the gay bathho, sex clubs, and porn theaters, which was amed as a public health measure.
THE HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO. 1984
For s, gay men gathered anonymoly at the Everard Baths, seekg sexual liaisons and mararie alike * history of gay bathhouses *
I’ve raised this topic wh dozens of queer people across generatns, and a staggerg number nsir a matter of mon knowledge that shuttg down the gay bathho, sex clubs, and porn theaters was a necsary and effective policy unr the circumstanc. As public health workers argued at the time 1980s, keepg the gay bathhoe, sex clubs, and porn theaters open would provi them wh plac to te people about HIV and AIDS, to tt people for HIV and AIDS, and to offer people greater accs to medil treatment for HIV and AIDS. My purpose unrsrg the value of gay bathho, sex clubs, and porn theaters and retracg the polil motivatns for closg so many of them down durg the AIDS crisis this say and my novel, My Government Means to Kill Me, isn’t simply an exercise explorg history.
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.
BEFORE IT BURNED DOWN, THIS BATHHOE SERVED AS A HAVEN FOR NEW YORK CY’S GAY COMMUNY
In the neteenth century, tenements did not have aquate bathrooms, and mercial bathho were out of reach for the cy's poor. In 1851 the first public bathhoe opened on Mott Street, and 1901 the cy's first ee, year-round bathhoe opened on Rivgton Street. Some bathhho beme meetg plac for gay men, and others rema popular for cultural or relig reasons to this day. * history of gay bathhouses *
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.
DID CLOSG NEW YORK CY BATHHO THE 1980S STRIP DIGNY OM GAY MEN?
In the mid-1980s, ntroversy emerged a number of Amerin ci over the rol gay bathho and sex clubs might play the spread of AIDS, and raisg safe-sex awarens. In 1984, San Francis beme the first cy where polil bat broke out over AIDS-related polici for bathho … * history of gay bathhouses *
-- 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 suatns.It'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."I don't want to feel like I have to thk about anymore," Maxen said the piece published Thursday afternoon. 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. 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.
SAN DIEGO'S GAY BATHHO, WILD LIFE OF OUR FOREIGN BBI, BT LIGHT THE CY
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.
Footnote 9 Over the followg two s, sex beme ls central to homosexual cultural inti, beme more heavily ntrolled and mediated, and no longer a primary anizg logic of gay life. Public baths have always been homosocial environments by virtue of the separatn of men and women and the cultur of male and female bondg, rpectively, that they facilated.