Gay bathhouse

Gay bathhouses, also known as (gay) saunas or steam baths (and sometimes called, in gay slang in some regions, "the baths" or "the tubs"), are places where men can go to have sex with other men (note that not all men who visit gay bathhouses consider themselves 'gay'). Bathhouses for women are much more rare, though some men's bathhouses will occasionally have "lesbian" or "women-only" nights.

Bathhouses vary considerably in size and amenities — from small establishments with ten or twenty rooms and a handful of lockers to multi-storey saunas with a variety of room styles or sizes and several steam baths, jacuzzi tubs and sometimes even swimming pools — but nearly all have at least one steam room (or wet sauna), as well as lockers and small private rooms. Unlike at brothels, customers pay only for the use of the facilities; sexual activity, if it occurs, is not provided as a service by staff of the establishment, but is between customers, and no money is exchanged. In fact, nearly all gay bathhouses prohibit or discourage prostitution and ban known prostitutes.

Bathhouses are frequently run 24 hours. There is typically a single customer entrance and exit; the customer can either rent a room — typically consisting of a locker and a single bed (though doubles are sometimes available) — or a locker, for a fixed period, typically from one to twelve hours. After paying, the customer is buzzed through the main door. This system allows establishments to screen potential trouble-makers; many bathhouses refuse entry to those who are visibly intoxicated, or to known prostitutes. In some areas, particularly where homosexuality is illegal, considered immoral, or viewed with hostility, this is a necessary safety precaution. For similar reasons, some bathhouses require the presentation of identification, though the majority do not.

Some bathhouses require customers to purchase yearly memberships and many offer special entry rates to members or to students or other groups. In some countries, bathhouses restrict entrance to men of certain age ranges (apart from the general requirement of being an adult) or physical types, and even perceived nationality or race although in other places this would be considered illegal discrimination. Some bathhouses hold occasional "leather", "underwear" or other theme nights.

Layout and typical amenities

On being buzzed in, the customer receives a (usually white) towel and the key for his room or locker. Many bathhouses also give free condoms and lubricants. Some establishments require a piece of identification or an item of value to be left with the front desk on entry.

Bathhouses are usually dimly lit, and pipe in music via a sound system. They are usually laid out in a circular fashion, or in such a way as to allow or encourage customers to wander throughout the establishment. Rooms are usually grouped together, as are lockers. Bathhouses are frequently decorated with posters of nude or semi-nude men, and sometimes explicit depictions of sex. The heat is kept relatively high.

The customer proceeds to his room or locker where he changes out of his street clothes and wraps a towel around his waist; most bathhouses are clothing optional and some encourage total nudity, but in some bathhouses nudity is forbidden in the common areas of the establishments. While some men may wear underwear or fetish-wear, in most bathhouses it is unusual for customers to remain fully dressed in street clothes. The room or locker key is usually suspended from an elastic band which can be worn around the wrist or ankle. The customer is then free to wander throughout the public areas of the bathhouse, which may include:

• group showers
• steam rooms (sometimes more than one)
• jacuzzi tubs (often located in the steam room)
• dry saunas
• mazes
• dark rooms
• "glory holes"
• theme rooms or areas
• orgy rooms
• video areas playing pornography
• relaxation areas where non-pornographic movies are shown
• café areas where food and/or drinks are served
• bars or full restaurants (these are relatively unusual)
• tanning booths
• gymnasium facilities
• dance areas
• swimming or lap pools

According to "The History of Gay Bathhouses", in the 1970s bathhouses began to install "fantasy environments" which recreated erotic situations that were illegal or dangerous:

Orgy rooms . . . encouraged group sex, while glory holes recreated [public] toilets, and mazes took the place of bushes and undergrowth [in public parks]. Steam rooms and gyms were reminiscent of the cruisy YMCAs, while video rooms recreated the balconies and back rows of movie theaters. A popular NYC bathhouse called Man's Country provided a full-size model of an Everlast truck where visitors could have sex in the cab or in the rear, which served as an orgy room . . . Man's Country also offered a . . . fake prison cell made of rubber bars (1).

Many bathhouses have small shops selling such items as cigarettes, pornography, sex toys, latex gloves, massage oils and lubricants, razors and shaving cream, aftershave and cologne, toothbrushes, hair products, and related items. Some also sell condoms, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, but these are usually provided free.

Some bathhouses provide non-sexual services such as massage and reflexology.

Etiquette

Customers typically divide their time between the showers/saunas/jacuzzis and the main areas of the establishment. Customers who have rented rooms may choose to rest there from time to time, while those who have rented lockers must rest in the public areas such as the café or lounge.

Customers who have rooms may leave their room doors open to signal that they are available for sex. An open door can also be an invitation for others to watch sexual activity that is already occurring, or to join in. Some men will position themselves to suggest what they might like from someone joining them in the room. Those who would like to be penetrated anally ("bottoms") will sometimes lie face down on the bed with the door open, while those who prefer to penetrate ("tops") might lie face up.

In the past, the baths served as community spaces for gay men. Even now, some men choose to go to the baths with their friends (even though they may not necessarily have sex with each other). While many men talk to each other at the baths, even forming long-lasting friendships or relationships, many others do not, preferring, for various reasons, anonymity. Interested men will usually look at each other; in this highly sexualized environment a look is frequently enough to express interest. A nod signals interest, while looking away or shaking the head is usually enough to signal a lack of interest, though sometimes people misunderstand or refuse to take the hint. Such men are called trolls. In darkened areas of the tubs and in mazes, video rooms, group sex areas, and the saunas or jacuzzis (but not generally in the showers, toilets, hallways, gyms, café areas and lounges), men are usually free to touch other patrons; it is expected and usually — but not always — welcomed. A shake of the head, or pushing away the other's hand, means that the object of such attention is not interested.

Some establishments encourage sex in public areas (albeit usually excluding the hallways, toilets, cafés, gyms and lounges) while others do not; in some jurisdictions such activity is prohibited, and sex must be confined to private rooms. In such areas individual bathhouses enforce these rules to varying degrees, often at their own legal risk. Customers are usually free to watch others masturbating or having sex in public areas, and also to join in, providing none of the participants objects.

History

Gay men have been meeting for sex in bathhouses at least since the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the West, a time when homosexual acts were illegal in most Western countries and men who were caught engaging in homosexual acts were often arrested and publicly humiliated. Men began frequenting cruising areas such as public parks, alleys, train and bus stations, movie theaters, public lavatories ("cottages") and gym changing rooms where they could meet other men for sex; they also frequented bathhouses, or Turkish baths. Some bathhouse owners tried to prevent sex between patrons while others, mindful of profits, allowed discreet homosexual activity (2).

Russian poet, novelist and composer Mikhail Kuzmin (1872–1936) is known to have patronized bathhouses. Some of the bathhouses in St. Petersburg at the time became known as friendly to gay men and provided "attendants," who might provide sexual services for a fee. In his diary, Kuzmin writes of one bathhouse visit:

In the evening I had the urge to go to a bathhouse simply to be stylish, for the fun of it, for cleanliness.

In the 1950s exclusively gay bathhouses began to open in the United States. Though subject to vice raids these bathhouses were "oases of homosexual camaraderie" and were, as they remain today, "places where it was safe to be gay", whether or not patrons themselves identified as homosexual. The gay baths offered a much safer alternative to sex in other public places (3).

In the late 1960s and '70s, gay bathhouses — now primarily gay-owned and operated — became fully-licensed, gay establishments which soon became a major gay institution. These bathhouses served as informal gay meeting places, places where friends could meet and relax. Gay bathhouses frequently threw parties for Pride Day and public holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, when some gays, particularly those who had been rejected by their families, had nowhere to go.

Another service offered by the baths was voter registration. In the run-up to the 1980 election, the New St. Mark's Baths in New York City, with the assistance of the League of Women Voters, conducted a voter registration drive on its premises (4).

Although most bathhouses do not allow customers to leave temporarily and re-enter, men frequently used bathhouses as a cheaper alternative to hotels, with the added attraction of the possibility of sex. This practice continues today.

Gay bathhouses and STDs

Gay bathhouses have been blamed for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), in particular HIV, and this has forced their closure in some jurisdictions (see Legal issues, below). There is likely some truth in this claim, at least in the early days of the epidemic, as condoms were rarely used between men before the early 1980s, and bathhouses served as a primary meeting point for same-sex (male) sex partners. Sociologist and author Stephen O. Murray, however, in his book American Gay (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), writes that, "there was never any evidence presented that going to bathhouses was a risk-factor for contracting AIDS."

On the other hand, David Horowitz, writing in Front Page Magazine in 1997, claims that the "re-emergence of a bathhouse-sex club culture that fosters large cohorts of promiscuous strangers" was responsible for spreading STDs in urban gay centers. Specifically, he claims that what he calls "sex clubs" (bathhouses ard sex clubs are different types of establishment; see the Legal issues section for more details) are responsible for the spread of AIDS:

Cowed by the politically correct activists who have crippled the battle against AIDS, the media have turned a blind eye to the rash of new sex clubs and refuse to make the connection that AIDS is as much a behavioral as a clinical disease. (14)

Neither the claim that bathhouses are responsible for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, nor the claim that they are not, has been conclusively proved, but it is known that STDs are spread via unprotected sex, and as part of their membership agreement, or as a condition of entry, some bathhouses now require customers to affirm in writing that they will only practice safe sex on the premises, and venues frequently provide free condoms, latex gloves and lubrication (and/or have them available for purchase).

Some anti-bathhouse activists argue that these measures are not enough, especially given that it is virtually impossible to monitor sexual activity in a bathhouse; however, while they acknowledge that closing gay bathhouses may force some men into unsafe or illegal situations in public parks and lavatories, they point out that they may be less likely to engage in anal or multipartner sex — both of which put participants at risk for contracting STDs — in such situations (5).

A related issue is that of drug and alcohol consumption. In some countries, most bathhouses are prohibited to sell alcohol, but in other countries, such as Japan, they are not. (In Canada, where some bathhouses serve alcohol, a bathhouse's holding a liquor license may open it up to liquor inspections, which activists claim are often a pretext for regulating gay sexual activity.) Many bathhouses deny entry to those who are visibly intoxicated but do not — or cannot — regulate the consumption of drugs (typically alcohol, marijuana, poppers, ecstasy and cocaine) by their patrons. This is a problem because the use of drugs and alcohol may make people more likely to engage in unsafe sex. Intravenous drug users may be more likely to share needles, considered a very high risk activity, while under the effects of narcotics. Sex clubs, which have no private areas, find it easier to regulate consumption of drugs on their premises.

In some areas, fears about the spread of STDs have prompted the closing of bathhouses — with their private rooms — in favour of sex clubs, in which all sexual activity takes place in the open, and can be observed by monitors whose job it is to enforce safe-sex practices.

Others counter these claims by pointing out that bathhouses are a major source of safer sex information — they provide pamphlets and post safer sex posters prominently (often on the walls of each room as well as in the common areas), provide free condoms and lubricants, and often require patrons to affirm that they will only have safer sex on the premises. They point out that closing bathhouses does not prevent people from engaging in unsafe sex.

Bathhouses today

Gay bathhouses today continue to fill much the same function as they did historically, although the community aspect has lessened somewhat in many areas, particularly in Western countries, with the increasing tendency of gay men to come out publicly.

Men still use bathhouses as a convenient, safe place to meet other men for sex, although in some areas where homosexuality is more accepted, safety may no longer be a primary attraction. Certainly bathhouses still offer convenience.

Sexual encounters at bathhouses are frequently, but not always, anonymous. They sometimes lead to relationships, but often do not. Bathhouses are still used by men who do not identify as gay or bisexual, but who have sex with men, as well as by those who are closeted and/or in heterosexual relationships and by some men who identify primarily as heterosexual.

The advent of the internet has made it significantly easier to find lovers and casual sex partners, and some men who used to frequent the baths may be using internet personals instead. However, for many men the baths offer other attractions: the opportunity for group sex or sex with several partners, public sex, the fantasy areas, convenience and safety, and the use of steam saunas and jacuzzis and other amenities.

Some men also continue to use the baths as a cheaper alternative to hotels.

Bathhouses are often not identifiable as such from the outside, though this is by no means always true. They sometimes display the rainbow flag, which is commonly flown by businesses to identify themselves as gay or gay-friendly places. Bathhouses advertise in the gay press (for example there are two-page advertisements in the British scene magazine Boyz for the London bathhouse Chariots. They also sometimes advertise in mainstream newspapers and other media. In 1993, for example, Australia began airing possibly the world's first television advertisements for a gay bathhouse. Local TV in the city of Melbourne screened some advertising for Wet, a sauna in Wellington Street, Collingwood.

Legal issues

United States

On February 21, 1903, New York police conducted the first recorded raid on a gay bathhouse, the Ariston. 26 men were arrested and 12 brought to trial on sodomy charges; 7 men received sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison (6).

In California the "Consenting Adult Sex Bill," passed in January 1976, made gay bathhouses and the sex that took place within them legal for the first time. In 1978 a group of police officers raided the Liberty Baths in San Francisco and arrested three patrons for "lewd conduct in a public place," but the District Attorney's office soon dropped the charges against them (7). In 1985, however, fear of AIDS caused the San Francisco Health Department, with the support of some gay activists, to force gay bathhouses in the city to close as a public health measure. They were soon replaced by sex clubs, which have no private rooms and therefore allow monitoring of sexual activity (8). The following year the New York City Health Department ordered that city's gay bathhouses closed; as an unintended consequence, heterosexual sex clubs such as the notorious Plato's Retreat had to shut down as well because the city had just passed a gay rights ordinance, and allowing the heterosexual clubs to remain open while closing the gay establishments would have been a violation of the newly-approved law.

Canada

On February 5, 1981, 150 police raided four gay bathhouses in Toronto, Ontario: the Club Baths, the Romans II Health and Recreation Spa, the Richmond Street Health Emporium, and The Barracks. The Richmond Health Emporium was so badly damaged in the raid that it never reopened. Nicknamed Operation Soap, the raid resulted in the arrests of 268 men who were charged as found-ins ("found in a bawdy house") and 19 others who were charged as "keepers of a common bawdy house". There was an immediate and angry response from both the gay and lesbian community and others who condemned the raids as unconstitutional, and over 3000 people gathered in downtown streets in protest. Over 1400 people joined the "Right to Privacy Committee" to set up a defense campaign for those charged in the raids and to organize a second demonstration which took place on February 20, and included over 4000 people who gathered at Queen's Park and marched to Metro Toronto Police's 52 Division (9).

In 2000, Toronto police raided Pussy Palace, a women's night at a bathhouse called Club Toronto. Police, some of them male, entered the establishment and walked around, taking the names and addresses of some 10 women. The raid caused much anger. Canadian filmmaker and actor Sky Gilbert argued that the women had a right to privacy and the police had violated that right:

What happened at Club Toronto last Friday night is that these women were raped; not physically, but morally, emotionally and spiritually. They had established a haven — a safe, private space to explore their sexuality (which is still held in contempt by most of society) — and these police officers violated it. (13)

The raid on Goliath's

In December 2002, Calgary police raided Goliaths, one of the city's oldest baths, resulting in charges against 19 men. Fifteen men were arrested in the raid. Thirteen customers were charged as "found-ins" (found in a common bawdy house without a legal excuse) and two staff members were charged with the more serious offense of keeping a common bawdy house. The customers face up to two years in prison. In addition, the owners of the bathhouse and a third staff member were later charged with keeping a common bawdy house. The Canadian media has thus far declined to publish the names of the men.

At issue is the bawdy house section of the Criminal Code, a law that was created in Victorian times to regulate prostitution. The code defines a bawdy house as a place where prostitution and/or indecent acts occur. Lawyers for the defense argue that since police are not alleging any prostitution took place at Goliath's, they are thus arguing that gay sex is by definition indecent.

On May 27, 2004, a judge ruled that the police had reasonable justfication to raid Goliath's. Defense lawyers counter that none of the anyonymous information the police acted upon — for example that live sex shows were being staged and drugs sold on the premises — featured in the charges made against the seventeen men. They also point out that the police failed to call in the force's gay community liaison officer.

Goliath's reopened a little more than a month after the raid and remains open.

In November of 2004, the Crown stayed the found-in charge against the last remaining patron, saying it is no longer in the public interest to pursue the case. The case against the owners and managers of Goliath's, however, is ongoing, and is expected to come to trial in February of 2005. The defendants will have to prove that the activity that the police allegedly witnessed at Goliath's was not indecent.

Terry Haldane, the only "found-in" patron who was actively fighting the charge against him, has accused the Crown of dropping the charge because Haldane and his lawyers had given notice of their plan to challenge the bawdyhouse law all the way to the Supreme Court. Haldane has stated that he will continue his fight, though he will now have to mount a new legal challenge.

Hamilton's Warehouse Spa Raided

On Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004, Hamilton's "Warehouse Spa and Bath" was "inspected" by a task force of officers from the police, public health, the city's building and licensing department, the fire department and the alcohol and gaming commission. Two men were arrested and charged with committing indecent acts.

Bathhouse celebrities and the Continental Baths

Singer Bette Midler is well-known for getting her start at the famous Continental Baths in New York City the early 1970s, where she earned the nickname Bathhouse Betty. It was there, accompanied by pianist Barry Manilow (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel) that she created her stage persona "the Divine Miss M." In an interview in the Houston Voice, Midler said,

Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days [when I got my start singing at the gay bathhouses]. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride. (10)

Other famous performers who appeared at the Continental include Melba Moore, Peter Allen, Cab Calloway, The Manhattan Transfer, John Davidson (singer) and Wayland Flowers. As word spread of these appearances more and more heterosexuals began to attend the shows, and the gay clientele began to go elsewhere. Realizing that it was losing its most important customers, the Continental made the decision to discontinue these performances at the end of 1974. Unable to lure back its original clientele, the Continental reopened as a straight swingers' club which closed in 1985. (11)

References

1. The History of Gay Bathhouses. Online. Accessed February 23, 2004. Available: http://www.gaytubs.com/ahistory.htm
2. ibid.
3. ibid.
4. ibid.
5. Sine, Richard: "Both Sides Now", in MetroActive, August 29-September 4, 1996. Accessed February 23, 2004. Available: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.29.96/gay-bath-9635.html
6. The History of Gay Bathhouses.
7. ibid.
8. Herscher, Elaine: "Gay Bathhouse Issue Prompts Partisan Fervor/S.F. Health Commission may address clubs' return", in San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, June 14, 1999. Accessed February 23, 2004. Available: http://www.aegis.com/news/sc/1999/SC990601.html
9. "Operation Soap", in Stand Together, Accessed February 23, 2004. Available: http://www.yorku.ca/jspot/5/stand_together/3/
10. Bette Midler, in The Houston Voice, October 23, 1998.
11. "Bathhouse Bette", accessed February 23, 2004. Available: http://io.spaceports.com/~bmditd/bettebathhouse.html
12. Varnell, Paul. "Kuzmin and Gay Petersburg" Originally published October 11, 2000, in the Chicago Free Press.
13. "Bathhouse raid a sexist outrage" from Gilbert's pink panther column in Eye weekly. The article can be found here
14. "The boys in the bathhouses" David Horowitz [1]

Related topics

• List of gay-related topics

External links

• Gay Movies Discussion of gay movies and videos. Open access to free gay movie clips and downloads.
• NakedSword Premium gay per view view movies made simple.
• NakedSword The future of pay per minute gay movies and videos.
• Gay Bathhouse: Straight Boy Undercover
• Galboy's list of gay bathhouses in the Americas (also in Asia and Europe; see links on page)
• Chariots Health Clubs (sauna chain in London)