The San Diego City Council on Tuesday repealed a section of city code set down during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis that city leaders said was outdated and homophobic on Tuesday.

Established in April 1988 and last updated in 1991, Chapter 4 Article 2 Division 4 of the San Diego Municipal Code places strict restrictions on bathhouses in the city that “encourage, facilitate and/or knowingly allow their patrons to engage in sexual practices that pose a significant risk for the transmission of HIV.”

Council President Joe LaCava said a staff member found the above language and brought it to his attention.

“This language does not reflect who we are as a city,” LaCava said. “It is an outdated and offensive perspective and I do not support this kind of language.”

He said that while the San Diego Police Department and the city’s Development Services Department no longer enforce the ordinance, that was no reason to leave it on the books.

“Repealing it is a smart signal of how far we have come as a society,” LaCava said.

When the code was written in 1988, more than 700 San Diegans had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and half of those people had died. The language said that not only were bathhouses allowing for risky sexual encounters, but fostering it and claim that the officials say amounted to a homophobic stereotype, which has changed dramatically since the virus first arrived in the United States in the early 1970s.

“Gay and bisexual men were dying and being blamed for dying,” said Oxean “Eddie” Rey, the publisher of the LGBTQ San Diego News. “When this was added to the code, these facilities were comparable to a luxury spa, not a shady, dangerous stereotype.”

Councilman Raul Campillo said his uncle Francisco died of HIV/AIDS in 1992, and he also thanked the council president for updating the city code.

A document from LaCava’s office stated the case for the repeal.

For decades, bathhouses have provided a safe haven for members of the LGBTQIA+ community to gather, especially when it was not safe for them to do so publicly.

All regulations required for such businesses are overseen by the San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency, rendering this policy and code section unnecessary. Given that repealing this section will not have any permitting or enforcement impacts, there is no operational or practical use for this section.

According to the city of San Diego, at least 10,000 of its residents have died due to complications from HIV/AIDS since the virus arrived locally.