Before gay kickball leagues, \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race,\u201d Grindr or even Stonewall, there was the steamy world of bathhouses.<\/p>\n
Operating 24 hours a day, bathhouses were havens for gay men, where they could be entertained by the likes of Bette Midler and Barry Manilow<\/a>, go for a swim and engage in sexual activity.<\/p>\n But at the height of the AIDS crisis some 40 years ago, public health officials in New York shuttered adult saunas and bathhouses to try to stop the spread of disease.<\/p>\n Now a group of gay state lawmakers are spearheading a push to bring back what they describe as vital cultural spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s 2026, not 1986,\u201d said Tony Simone, a State Assembly sponsor of the bill whose district in Manhattan includes Chelsea and Hell\u2019s Kitchen. \u201cWe have modern medicine and education. It\u2019s ridiculous that this is legal in Florida, in Texas, but not in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n Public baths and spas are legal in New York, but the state\u2019s health code prohibits those facilities from setting aside areas, like the private rooms available in bathhouses, \u201cfor the purpose of sexual activities<\/a> where anal intercourse, vaginal intercourse or fellatio take place. Such facilities shall constitute a threat to the public health.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters of the bill contend that repealing that code follows the principles of harm reduction, which prioritizes providing safe environments and offering resources over banning a particular action.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard to make a case on the public health grounds from 40 years ago to say that this prohibition should still remain in place,\u201d said Dr. Jessica Justman, an epidemiologist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health who specializes in infectious diseases and H.I.V. prevention. Not only has testing and treatment come a long way since then, Dr. Justman said, but the mainstream public health system\u2019s approach has evolved to embrace harm reduction.<\/p>\n The effect of prohibitions must be weighed against the practicality of carrying them out, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBetter to meet people where they are and work with them and help them take as many steps as they can to protect themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Opponents questioned the necessity of repealing the health code, arguing that it did not serve health or moral interests.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the same reasons we oppose legalization of prostitution, we would oppose this,\u201d said Dennis Poust, the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference. \u201cIt contributes to just a cheapening of the gift of sexuality. It exploits people, and it is a serious public health threat in both cases,\u201d he added, noting that H.I.V. is far from the only infection that can be sexually transmitted.<\/p>\n \u201cI think society has done just fine without public bathhouses in New York City,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Minneapolis became the latest city to repeal its prohibition on adult saunas, spurring the current proposal in New York.<\/p>\n State Senator Erik Bottcher, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, said the proposed legislation would require the State Department of Health to communicate rules and regulations to establish a public health framework to govern the use and operation of these spaces, \u201cwhich is not something that exists now\u201d at underground venues.<\/p>\n The earliest that the Legislature could act on the bill would be next year; lawmakers concluded their yearly session in June. It is not clear if Democratic legislative leaders support the proposal; representatives for the Assembly and Senate majorities did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation, nor did the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Representatives for Republican minority leadership in the State Legislature declined to comment.<\/p>\n Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, offered some conditional support for the measure. \u201cProvided the facilities are healthy and clean, I have no problem with consenting adults taking a bath together,\u201d Mr. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, said.<\/p>\n H.I.V. diagnoses<\/a> in New York City have fallen significantly since the AIDS crisis, but there has been a slight uptick in recent years, centered in low-income neighborhoods and among Black and Latino men and women. The city reported 1,791 new cases in 2024, up 5.4 percent from 2023, and up 12.7 percent from 2022, when there were 1,589 reported cases.<\/p>\n State Health Department officials did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Bathhouses have existed since Roman times for both hygiene and as places of social gathering. Before the widespread availability of indoor plumbing, public and private bathhouses existed across New York City, and were used by all.<\/p>\n As indoor plumbing spread, however, the bathhouses began to serve another purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore gay people had legal protection or safe gathering spaces, bathhouses provided greater privacy and physical security than the alternatives, which were streets, parks, restrooms and bars,\u201d explained Ken Lustbader, the co-founder of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.<\/p>\n By the 1920s, bathhouses like the Everard on 28th Street had gained a reputation as a gay oasis, and by the 1960s, gay bathhouse culture was so sufficiently established that proprietors began to see commercial opportunity. In 1968, the lavish Continental Baths<\/a> opened in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel on West 73rd Street, touting a swimming pool, sauna rooms, a disco and a cabaret lounge complete with a baby grand piano, as well as many private rooms.<\/p>\n \u201cI was at the baths all the time,\u201d said Allen Roskoff, 76, a longtime leader of the gay liberation movement.<\/p>\n The baths, he said, were one of the first places that men of his generation and before found themselves and a sense of community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were afraid, we lived in the closet,\u201d he said. \u201cOur parents disowned us, and all of a sudden, we had this exciting venue to start a new life. Everything was great until the AIDS crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n The devastation of H.I.V., which has claimed the lives of over 100,000 people in New York City alone, endures to this day.<\/p>\n