SEX ISSUE

landmark 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down homophobic anti-sodomy laws have certainly made it safer and actually legal to seek out same-sex hookups. But even still, bathhouses have historically provided a certain amount of safety and ease to the gay male community that can’t be denied.

And Wasdin says that continues to this day. Even fi nding hookup partners via apps comes with its own degree of risk, either in going to a stranger’s home or having them come to you, as does meeting at bars and good ol’ fashioned cruising. Bathhouses, Wasdin says, can provide a neutral, safe space to meet and have sex.

“For gay men in particular, bathhouses were about risk reduction,” Wasdin says. “And it’s a place that allows you to meet others to have sex in a relatively safe environment; and so, you know, boom, March comes, that’s gone.”

As with many other businesses amid the ever-continuing pandemic, bathhouses and play spaces are also under significant fi nancial stress; and that’s alongside a historic shuttering of these spaces, adding another head to the hydra of the forces that are closing these doors.

BATHHOUSES