Sauna access will also be off-limits for the time being. The new rules include time limits, reduced capacity and "depending on where we're at when we reopen," distancing protocols, Rowe said.
"That's the kind of mentality, the business model we still have."Įros has already outlined a detailed draft series of modifications that'll allow it to reopen safely as soon as the city gives it the go-ahead. "We use hospital-grade cleaning already," Rowe said.
Open-format gay sex clubs were still allowed, with the goal of monitoring attendees to ensure they practiced safe sex.īack then, Rowe said, Eros' founders "were always trying to look at what the science was, and how to expand that into a semi-public play space like this." They provided free condoms, and to ensure their safe, effective use, they installed lubricant in wall-mounted soap dispensers. The city had already banned bathhouses - gay sex clubs with private rooms and locked doors - eight years prior, in an effort to curb the spread of HIV. | Photo: SteamworksĮros opened for business on Market Street at the height of the AIDS epidemic, in 1992. "We expect to roll with this pandemic as we did with HIV," said Ken Rowe, a spokesperson for Eros. With even closer quarters and higher contact than most nightlife venues, sex clubs seem uniquely vulnerable in the face of a viral pandemic.īut the long history of harm reduction and safer-sex modifications these clubs displayed in the AIDS crisis also makes them uniquely poised to reopen safely as COVID-19 restrictions ease. That prompted concern that the remaining holdouts in the Bay Area's once-bustling gay sauna and bathhouse world - San Francisco's Eros and Berkeley's Steamworks - might dry up, too. SoMa's Blow Buddies shuttered after 32 years in business, as did San Jose bathhouse Watergarden, which had been operating since 1977.īoth businesses cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for their closure. They were gross cootie traps filled with drugs, sanitation issues and illegal activity.Last month saw the permanent closure of two landmark Bay Area gay sex clubs.
Saying "hey, you can go have sex at this place where the homeless are taking showers" should not be their marketing technique. There are about 1000 different ways to find a hook-up. Second, regarding casual gay sex, this isn't really an issue that needs fixing. Also, if the homeless who are not interested in some casual sex need a place to clean up there are emergency shelters, gyms, and even traveling bus-showers.
The hygiene issues may cause a cut to fester or a rash to intensify or may even cause the individual to get bugs like lyce, but they’re not going to result in full blown diseases. You’re not exactly selling the idea with your conflating homeless hygiene issues with casual gay sex.įirst, regarding the homeless, the diseases the homeless are carrying are more than likely a result of heath choices (alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc.) and not so much about hygiene. If you've been to the 442 Natoma club, please let me know what you think of the place and best of luck to the owners for a business that thrives. Right now, I said, homeless people are suffering from diseases due to lack of showering and if we walked down one block to the main library's restrooms, we'd likely find such folks trying to wash their bodies using the small sinks. We need bathhouses as a meeting place for gay men to enjoy each other's company behind closed doors, unlike in sex clubs where all activities must be viewable at all times by the staff, and so that homeless people can have facilities to wash up and maintain hygiene, I told the commission. 4 meeting of the San Francisco health commission at 101 Grove Street and use public comment to advocate for reopening the bathhouses to feed two birds with one seed. Speaking of bathhouses, I was at the Tuesday, Feb. Surely there's been a huge migration from bars and clubs to the web for horned homos hunting for sexual fun and love, but do not underestimate or dismiss the large segment of gay men who prefer to do their cruising and playing in bathhouses and clubs. We've all heard tales of gay male sex spaces losing business because dudes are using apps and online cruising sites for hookups, and that we supposedly need fewer physical spaces to meet each other and get it on. Don't you just love it when such places use their addresses as the name of the business, making it so helpful for folks to remember where the business is located? CumUnion parties that were formerly held at the now-closed BrigSF playspace are hosted at the new club.
A new gay male sex club has opened at 442 Natoma in the South of Market district and is a private membership venue.