The Bay Area Reporter - June 18, 1999
Cynthia Laird

The council is now expected to send a letter to the Health Commission asking that its members consider the HPPC's recommendation. The HPPC's vote is not binding, and DPH spokeswoman Eileen Shields told the Bay Area Reporter last week that the Health Commission has the authority to determine whether or not it will even hear about the HPPC recommendation.

Existing DPH regulations require that public sex establishments provide condoms and safer sex information, and that all spaces be monitored by club staff. A prohibition on closed, private spaces in bathhouses was instituted by court order in 1984 in an effort to reduce the spread of AIDS. The current regulations were adopted in the spring of 1997.

Current city rules do not prohibit bathhouses per se, and the debate is not really about "opening the baths," but rather about allowing private spaces in any type of public sex establishment. The term "bathhouse" is often used to refer to venues with closed spaces, while venues with larger public spaces are typically referred to as "sex clubs," even if they have bathhouse-like amenities such as steamrooms.

There was far less discussion last week than at the lengthy June 3 community forum. Sister MaryMae Himm informed the council that the June 3 vote was invalid because there had been a motion to table on the floor. Because that motion required a two-thirds vote to override it, and that did not happen, the subsequent vote on the recommendations was nullified.

That brought an exclamation from ACT UP/San Francisco's Dave Pasquarelli, "This is crap. I want a vote now."

Kang then made a new motion, that the HPPC recommend to the DPH that it rescind the current policy prohibiting private spaces in public sex environments, unless clear and compelling evidence exists that private spaces in public commercial sex environments leads to increased HIV transmission.

Councilmember Jennifer Lorvick commented that the argument most commonly put forth, that private spaces should be banned if it prevents one HIV infection, isn't compelling to her. She also pointed out that "the best HIV prevention work is done in collaboration with the community," and said, "it's good to have the option to educate people about HIV and allow private spaces and really use it as a venue."

Councilmember Michael Discepola said any letter to the DPH should include recommendations about how to do prevention in venues such as bathhouses. Meredith added that the letter should also include a statement on the need for more research.

At the June 3 forum, Dr. William Woods of the University of California, San Francisco's (UCSF) Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) presented two studies. In the first, Woods and his colleagues compared two post-AIDS studies conducted in Los Angeles - which has no privacy ban - and San Francisco, and concluded that prohibition of closed spaces in sex establishments may have the "unintended consequence" that men take sex "somewhere else, somewhere less safe."

The second CAPS study surveyed over 1,800 men in San Francisco, with its ban on private spaces; New York City, which permits only closed spaces; and Chicago, which has sex clubs with both private and open spaces. The researchers found "no significant differences" among the three cities in terms of unprotected anal intercourse, group sex, or number of partners.

Of the public speakers at last week's meeting, only one, Randy Wendelin, spoke in favor of keeping the ban on private spaces. Several other speakers reiterated comments from the June 3 meeting. Hank Wilson, from ACT UP/Golden Gate, talked about Woods's studies and how people didn't know in advance what he was going to say because the information was prepared hours before the community forum.

"There are people who are not getting [HIV prevention] information, that don't go to sex clubs," Wilson said.

Lincoln Madison urged the council to support the motion that was ultimately approved. "San Francisco is absolutely backwards on this issue," he said.

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