The New York Times - November 9, 1985
Ralph Blumenthal

"No sex on the premises," a tattooed manager pointedly tells patrons before accepting their $12 "membership fees" to a now largely deserted sadomasochism club in the West Village.

"It is illegal to have anal and oral intercourse in public, by order of the Health Department," a West Side homosexual bar reminds patrons - who pass the sign as they slip downstairs for sexual encounters in one of the few remaining "back rooms" still open.

The growing climate of fear surrounding AIDS, combined with a new city-state drive against establishments that permit "high-risk sexual activities," has brought noticeable changes to New York City's homosexual bar and club scene, visits to some of the leading places and interviews with patrons indicate.

The changes predated the shutdown on Thursday of what some city officials called the most notorious of the clubs, the Mine Shaft at 835 Washington Street, near Little West 12th Street. But the closing focused attention on the developing trends and intensified debate over the wisdom of the governmental actions.

Following the closing of the Mine Shaft -which some activists described as the "granddaddy" of the city's homosexual clubs and which inspectors said permitted dangerous sexual practices - Mayor Koch said yesterday that the city was investigating whether the club might have been improperly registered as a fraternal organization and whether it had properly paid taxes.

Meanwhile, another longtime West Village club, the Anvil, on 11th Avenue at 14th Street, has quietly shut its doors.

"The Anvil will be closed until further notice," said a handwritten sign on the locked door of the club, which former patrons said specialized in after-hours sex exhibitions and shows by female impersonators.

Other places, possibly expecting raids, conspicuously scrutinized visitors and closed off back rooms.

The Hell Fire Club, down a flight of stairs at 28 Ninth Avenue, near 14th Street, was largely deserted Thursday night and early yesterday with none of the group-sex scenes and sadomasochistic exhibitions that former patrons said made the club popular with heterosexuals and bisexuals.

Guests paid a $12 "membership" fee and were asked to sign a form pledging to engage only in "safe sex" involving no exchange of bodily fluids. Still, a manager cautioned against any sex on the premises. Signs on the walls listed the club rules, which included "no bullwhips, electric prods or animals" and "no touching without permission."

A bartender served only soft drinks, although some patrons said they remembered having bought alcoholic drinks there.

At Les Hommes, a bookstore at 217 West 80th Street, visitors who paid $3.50 to push past a turnstile into an area of film booths were told by the management, "Only one person to a booth." A sign threatened expulsion of anyone engaging in sex on the premises, and an "Off Limits" sign was posted on a door that patrons remembered as leading to a back room for sexual encounters.

One former patron, Jan Park, a writer for the homosexual national weekly The Native, said sexual activity at such places had fallen into wide disfavor since the AIDS crisis.

Back Rooms Closed

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is believed transmitted by a virus during exchanges of bodily fluids, particularly by homosexual men and intravenous drug users. It leaves the victim prey to such diseases as cancer and pneumonia and has afflicted more than 14,000 people in the United States, killing more than half to date.

Amid the growing concern over AIDS, many clubs and bars have closed their back rooms, which afforded patrons places for sexual encounters. Consequently, many popular homosexual bars in the West Village, such as the Ramrod, Badlands, the Spike and others, solely offer a place for patrons to meet each other, but not for sex on the premises.

However, the Candle, at 309 Amsterdam Avenue, near 74th Street, still does have a back room down a flight of stairs. In the gloom of black-painted plaster walls and a red bulb, several men could be seen Thursday night engaged in some sexual activity, but there was no evident violation of the rule on a sign cautioning against anal or oral intercourse.

Those practices were defined as "high risk" by the State Public Health Council when it issued a 60-day order Oct. 25 permitting city authorities to close down any bars, bathhouses or other places countenancing violations.

A Form to Sign

Further signs of changed sexual practices were evident at the St. Mark's Baths at 6 St. Marks Place in the East Village.

Patrons must sign a form pledging: "I have read and understand the safe sex guidelines formulated by the New York Physicians for Human Rights as presented by the G.M.H.C. and provided to me herein. I understand that diverging from these guidelines could be harmful; therefore, I, as a patron of this establishment, agree to follow these guidelines."

The reference is to the Gay Men's Health Crisis, a group working to combat the AIDS epidemic.

With the literature, each patron receives a condom. At the baths, patrons doff their clothes and receive a towel. They can shower in the basement, and then roam three floors of corridors lined with cubicles containing beds.

But a large "dormitory" room where patrons said group-sex encounters had taken place was closed "for renovation."

While some activists and medical experts applauded the drive to close establishments like the Mine Shaft, others dismissed it as biased or misguided.

"We need to educate the gay community, and these are the places where they can be educated," said Tim Sweeney, executive director of Lambda, a legal defense fund for homosexuals.

"If the authorities drive this underground and it opens up in some district where there is no supervision, what health purpose is being served?" he asked.

"We do not oppose unreasonable regulations," said Jeffrey Levi, political director of the National Gay Task Force. But he said that merely closing establishments "misleads people into thinking that the problems are contained."

A number of leaders questioned the fairness of government's focusing on homosexual practices while apparently ignoring heterosexual health threats. In fact, while homosexuals gather at their West Village bars late at night, women prostitutes can be seen freely soliciting all over the darkened streets near the Hudson River and escorting their customers into alleyways or cheap hotels.

"We need to protect everyone's health," Mr. Sweeney said. "What about the prostitutes? What about the massage parlors?"

"They should look at Eighth Avenue," said George Whitmore, a writer, referring to women prostitutes there. "I think it's ridiculous." Dr. Michael Quadland, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital and an expert in sexuality who works with homosexuals to alter compulsive sexual behavior, said safer sex was more a question of education than location.

"You don't get diseases from places," he said. "You get them from activities."

He said he had been working to change the erotic perceptions of some patients and steer them away from dangerous sexual practices. "They must learn to re-eroticize," he said. In that regard, he said, he is creating "healthy sex visuals," or films to encourage sex practices that do not involve intercourse or other exchanges of fluids.

The closing of the Mine Shaft may already have had an effect, whether or not the one intended.

"I see lots of people from the Mine Shaft here, people I haven't seen in a long time," said Gary Rose, a bartender at Badlands, at 388 West Street, near Christopher Street. "Now they meet here. So who knows where they go from here?"

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