Decades-old San Francisco police code prevents return of gay bathhouses

  • by Matthew S. Bajko, Assistant Editor
  • Tuesday October 1, 2024
Share this Post:
Efforts to open gay bathhouses, like the Steamworks in Berkeley, in San Francisco have hit another snag — an outdated police code. Photo: Jane Philomen Cleland
Efforts to open gay bathhouses, like the Steamworks in Berkeley, in San Francisco have hit another snag — an outdated police code. Photo: Jane Philomen Cleland

Turns out, gay bathhouses aren't so welcome to open again, just yet, in San Francisco. As per a decades-old police code, such facilities still can't have rooms with locked doors as is traditionally a feature of the establishments.

Even more problematic, the city's police code continues to require owners of public bathhouses to keep a daily register of their patrons that at any time can be demanded to be seen by either police or a health department employee. It must include not only people's names and home addresses but also their hour of arrival, and which room or cubicle they were assigned.

"We weren't sure it was going to be a problem. It turned out to be a problem," said gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the city's LGBTQ Castro district at City Hall, of the police code's Article 26.

As the Bay Area Reporter has covered over the last four years, Mandelman has led a legislative push to remove what many consider to be anachronistic local laws governing the operation of bathhouses in San Francisco. Most were enacted in the early 1980s during the start of the AIDS epidemic as an attempt to control the little-understood disease that was decimating the city's gay and bisexual male population.

When the San Francisco Department of Public Health put into effect regulations banning private rooms with locked doors at bathhouses and requiring staff to monitor the sex of their patrons, the result was a de facto ban on gay bathhouses in San Francisco. Most closed their doors, while those remaining became sex clubs without locked rooms for rent.

The Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed rescinded those rules embedded in the city's health code in 2020. Due to the COVID pandemic, the health department didn't make the change official until January 2021, as the B.A.R. reported at the time.

It was hoped then that its doing so would pave the way for gay bathhouses to open again in the city. But another hiccup occurred when it was discovered the city's zoning rules were too restrictive and prevented adult sex businesses from operating in most of the city.

Thus, Mandelman went back to his board colleagues in 2022 and asked them to pass an ordinance to allow such businesses to open in the city's historic LGBTQ neighborhoods, such as the Castro, Tenderloin, and South of Market, as the B.A.R. reported. He had hoped that would be the final hurdle facing gay bathhouses that he would need to address.

Yet, on Tuesday, October 1, the start of LGBTQ History Month, Mandelman introduced his third ordinance dealing with cleaning up the city's rules for gay bathhouses. This time it would remove the police code sections dealing with such establishments, which Mandelman told the B.A.R. had been enacted in the 1970s before the health department's de facto ban was instated.

"I think everyone agrees we can get rid of it. The police are supportive and DPH is supportive," said Mandelman. "Everyone wants to do this. It has been a barrier for some of the folks trying to look at getting permitted."

Mandelman's office said it has been contacted by four people interested in opening a gay bathhouse somewhere in the city. One of the individuals is Joel Aguero, 33, a Mission-Dolores neighborhood resident who is nonbinary and pansexual.

In July, on the website for their proposed Castro Baths at castrobaths.org, Aguero had posted that their intention was to open somewhere in the Castro district by next June during Pride Month. But with the police code still in place, no lease for a location signed, and still in the early phase of lining up at least $3 million from investors, Aguero told the B.A.R. Tuesday they are unlikely to meet that timeline.

But they are convinced if the police code is jettisoned and a traditional gay bathhouse is allowed to open again in the city, it would be a success. Tourists, in particular, would flock to it, predicted Aguero, who would prefer to find a space in the Castro for their bathhouse.

"People come here and are expecting one to be here," said Aguero, who grew up in the Sacramento area and went to their first gay bathhouse, the Boiler, in Berlin, Germany.

Nathan Diesel, 51, a gay resident of Hayes Valley, is also convinced a gay bathhouse would be financially successful and that there would be enough interest to support more than one such establishment. He told the B.A.R. he has looked at a property in SOMA near Dore Alley that he feels would be an ideal location, being within the city's Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.

A survey he conducted this past summer resulted in responses from more than 800 people. There was overwhelming support for having a gay bathhouse operating again in the city, said Diesel.

"It is still relevant. It does matter," he said about local interest in having such a business to patronize.

Yet, Diesel also needs to line up investors in order to open and created the website newbathhouse.com for those interested to be able to contact him. At bare minimum, it would take $1.5 million to do so, Diesel told the B.A.R.

"Whoever opens first will probably reap the best rewards, but I am not in a rush," said Diesel, who grew up in San Luis Obispo.

He has frequented Steamworks in Berkeley and went to his first international gay bathhouse, Kaiserbründl in Vienna, Austria, to mark his 40th birthday. He went to ones in Berlin and Amsterdam for his 50th, and would like to celebrate turning 60 in his own such establishment.

"For me, personally, it is a passion project. I would love to see if I could develop it," said Diesel, who like Aguero works in the tech industry.

The Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee will likely take up the bathhouse item in early November, said Mandelman, who hopes to have it before the mayor for her signature by December.

"Everything about San Francisco city government is complicated," noted Mandelman. "It would be great to have gay bathhouses be a part of San Francisco's revival. I hope we don't find any more impediments; if we do, we will keep clearing them out."

Never miss a story! Keep up to date on the latest news, arts, politics, entertainment, and nightlife.

Sign up for the Bay Area Reporter's free weekday email newsletter. You'll receive our newsletters and special offers from our community partners.

Support California's largest LGBTQ newsroom. Your one-time, monthly, or annual contribution advocates for LGBTQ communities. Amplify a trusted voice providing news, information, and cultural coverage to all members of our community, regardless of their ability to pay -- Donate today!