via guest LifeLube blogger Mark Hubbard de Nashville
They have lots of names: Bath houses. Sex clubs. Back rooms or dark rooms. Regardless, it seems like every so often this question is raised. Most recently, it was asked on a gay men’s health email group.
Each question on the subject leads to another. Will closing a sex play space improve the overall health of the community? Do guys engage in behavior in these spaces that they don’t, can’t, or wouldn’t elsewhere? Is the likelihood of someone having multiple risky exposures greater in these spaces? (more bluntly put, do more people take multiple loads anally in these spaces?) Does this result in higher “disease burden” for the community?
I can’t answer these questions in a scientific way. I suspect that doing valid research on this subject would be difficult, expensive, and controversial. One list member indicated that such a project is underway, and I’d be very interested in the results.
I live in Tennessee, where there hasn’t been a legal bathhouse since the very early 80's. What we do have are boothstores, private parties, and the net (sites, chats, and groups, etc.) Over the last few years one of the private parties in Nashville rose to the level of being a de facto bath house [complete with lockers, an orgy room, multiple big screen videos, open bars and other party supplies, a huge pool, and more.]
Boothstores go through cycles of being more or less vigilant about rules, but
sexual activity is always a reality. Condoms and lube must be purchased which may arouse suspicion from staff. Recent legislation and enforcement crackdowns have reduced the number of these venues.Although the hosts of the mentioned "pseudo-bathhouse" always provided condoms and lube, and while its rules poster encouraged people to "take responsibility for their own health and protection," the only real safety message in the space was about using Viagra and poppers. Significant opportunities to engage the clientele onsite did not realistically exist.
At least in this region, those who are cruising online certainly create opportunities for themselves to bottom multiple times in a night. In addition to using the above venues, they do it by organizing parties of various sizes in their own homes or hotels. They do it at regularly scheduled events organized via yahoo groups and the like. They do it by renting cheap motel rooms close to the interstate, logging on, and asking for what they want.
My feeling is that it would always be preferable to nurture collaboration between the venue and authorities. What comes to mind are basic things like making lube and condoms easily accessible, providing a minimum amount of lighting and resources for cleanup, and providing access for outreach and education efforts.
I also have friends who live in Atlanta that I've regularly visited over the years. There was no bathhouse nearly a decade. While that may have had a temporary effect in reducing exposures, what eventually happened was that parties of the type I’ve discussing emerged (with and without the use of the internet) and some evolved into semi-permanent underground sex clubs. These often are completely unlicensed firetraps, discourage discussion of self-care, make access to condoms and lube difficult if not impossible, and barely have enough bathroom capacity (forget about showers).
No, I don’t have supporting data, but I have always believed that having a regulated, legal public sex venue in my community would reduce harm.
mark
Mark Hubbard, Nashville
As a public health professional, I think it is important that public health departments are pro-active in engaging with venues where sex occurs on premises.
ReplyDeleteWe need to recognise that it's going to happen and it's a lot easier to provide condoms, lube and safer sex information in one of these sites than when there is no physical space for men to meet.
I think we also need to recognise that by engaging with these venues we can help promote better and safer spaces for men through informing staff working in the venues about occupational immunisation for hepatitis A & B, advice on how to clean up bodily fluids and environmental health advice around issues such as jacuzzi/hot tub temperature to prevent outbreaks of gastroenteritis, etc.
Closing venues, especially during outbreaks, simply sends the sexual networks onto the internet or into alternative venues which might be harder to reach and much harder to track.
Working in the public sector you often tred a fine line with legislation and political fallout, but I think it's essential that professionals find a way to build partnerships which engage rather than simply turning a blind eye to these venues and in effect abandoning the men that use them.