After saying for years that new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men are high, but stable, a city health department memo given to Gay City News is asserting that new HIV infections
among those men are increasing."New York City is now experiencing an increase in syphilis and an increase in HIV infection in men who have sex with men," Dr. Thomas Farley, a special advisor to Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city's health commissioner, wrote in the November 2007 memo.
The six-page memo, titled "Policy Regarding Bathhouses and Other Commercial Sex Venues in New York City,"was drafted for Frieden and explores the options for dealing with sex clubs and bathhouses.
Read the rest in Gay City News.
Read Joe.My.God's post titled "NYC Mulls Closing Bathhouses, Sex Clubs."
This is an unfortunately hard line approach. What do you think? Would you want to see bathhouses shut down in your city?
Do we consider for a moment that the baths are a tool of our own oppression and that there is no similar legal venue for heterosexuals? Protected sex in the baths remains the exception, not the rule, regardless of how many signs are posted. The Internet quickly replaced the baths for scoring relatively anonymous sex, while cruising in either venue for most Queermen can be as much a ding to self-esteem as it can be a thrill.
ReplyDelete"the baths are a tool of our own oppression... Protected sex in the baths remains the exception"
ReplyDeleteI have had tons and tons and tons of protected sex at the baths, and I'm not alone in that at least based on what I've seen and on discussion with my peers.
And I fail to grasp the argument about baths causing oppression...
to consider any option other than the final one would seem a retrograde step for both public health and the gay community. Other cities across the world are struggling with how best to promote safer sex and testing in sauna settings and New York should look across to other global cities who are facing similar challenges and are taking forward option 4 with some success.
ReplyDeleteBathhouses have nothing to do with getting HIV or a STD. People will continue to get both if they have unsafe sex .... period
ReplyDeleteGay, Str8 and Bi sexual men all must learn to have safe sex.