NY lawmakers want to bring back sex-fueled bathhouses 40 years after ban during AIDS crisis

They’re bringing back true hookup “hotspots.”A steamy new proposal would legalize sex in saunas and bathhouses citywide — repealing a 1980s law that blamed the wet-and-wild romps for spreading AIDS among gay folks.State Senator Erik Bottcher and Assemblymember Tony Simone, who represent Manhattan’s LGBT- friendly west side, said it’s time to replace the dusty old ban on “adult-saunas.” The current law says, “No establishment shall make facilities available for the purpose of sexual activities where anal intercourse, vaginal intercourse or fellatio take place.Such facilities shall constitute a threat to the public health.”But the new legislation recognizes that saunas have served for decades as important gathering places for gay folks — before they were shuttered during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to curb infections and deaths.“Emergency measures from another era should not become permanent public policy,” said Bottcher, chair of the Senate’s Cities Committee.“Actions taken at the height of the AIDS crisis are out of step with modern reality.

The science has changed.Prevention has changed.

Treatment has changed.It’s time for our laws to change too.”Simone said outlawing sauna sex simply pushes gay New Yorkers into “the shadows.” “The year is 2026, not 1986: evidence-based practices informed by the past 30 years of public health research make it clear we should repeal the ban on adult-use bathhouses and saunas,” he said.

“Queer New Yorkers are being forced into the shadows…we all know these places exist,” Simone said.Indeed, several spas and bathhouses in the Big Apple are already rumored hotbeds for sex — with reports of public hookups at Spa Castle in Queens and the East Side Club, a 24-hour sauna in Midtown.There’s now effective treatment for HIV/AIDS through PrEP, PEP, routine HIV testing, and other prevention strategies, Bottcher and Simone said.A former top public health official endorsed the leg...