A gay bathhouse, also known as a gay sauna or a gay steambath, is a public bath targeted towards gay and bisexual men. In gay slang, a bathhouse may be called just "the baths", "the sauna", or "the tubs". Historically, they have been used for sexual activity.
Bathhouses offering similar services for women are rare, but some men's bathhouses occasionally have a "lesbian" or "women only" night. Some, such as Hawks PDX, offer so-called "bisexual" nights, where anyone is welcome regardless of gender.
Gay bathhouses differentiate themselves from similar gay sex clubs or gay bar darkrooms by offering communal and/or individual water facilities (and thus, a more sanitary experience).
Bathhouses vary considerably in size and amenities—from small establishments with 10 or 20 rooms and a handful of lockers to multi-story saunas with a variety of room styles or sizes and several steam baths, hot tubs, and sometimes swimming pools and private outdoor facilities. Most have a steam room (or wet sauna), dry sauna, showers, lockers, and small private rooms.
Different cultures emphasize different uses of a gay bathhouse. In Asia, nearly every gay sauna includes a communal karaoke room complete with handheld microphones and large selections of songs for their toweled patrons. In Northern Europe, there are often small cafes or even restaurants offering full meals within a gay bathhouse. In North America, many gay bathhouses include a large dedicated gym area with weights and exercise machines.
In many countries, bathhouses are "membership only" (for legal reasons); though membership is generally open to anyone over the age of consent who seeks it, usually after paying a small fee. Unlike brothels, customers at gay bathhouses in the U.S. pay only for the use of the facilities. Sexual activity, if it occurs, is not provided by staff of the establishment, but is between customers with no money exchanged. Many gay bathhouses in the U.S., for legal reasons, explicitly prohibit and/or discourage prostitution and ban known sex workers.
In other countries (notably Thailand and Brazil), bathhouses may employ male sex workers to work directly on site. Their availability may be blatant (patrons choose a numbered male who is viewable behind a partition), or subtle (male sex workers may wear a towel and mix in as a general patron, but when approached will clarify they are solely "for rent".) These men for hire may have access to private rooms in the establishment that are otherwise off-limits to general guests. Sex fees are typically set by the management, although tipping is encouraged. Private session lengths and costs may be tallied up as "per song" playing overhead on the bathhouse's audio system. Since true male-only brothels are rarely found anywhere in the world, gay bathhouses sometimes also act as this hybrid model. However, unlike an actual brothel, patrons can choose to solely have sex with each other for free (without paying anything in addition to the price at the door).
History
Gay saunas have become important safe locations for men to meet and explore their sexuality, according to the LGBTQ+ community. These establishments first appeared in large European cities in the early 20th century, providing undercover and remote settings for same-sex interactions at a time when homosexuality was strongly stigmatized and illegal. A tradition of public baths dates back to the 6th century BCE, and there are many ancient records of homosexual activity in Greece. In the West, gay men have been using bathhouses for sex since at least the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time when homosexual acts were illegal in most Western countries and men who were caught engaging in homosexual acts were often arrested and publicly humiliated. Men began frequenting cruising areas such as bathhouses, public parks, alleys, train and bus stations, adult theaters, public lavatories (cottages or tearooms), and gym changing rooms where they could meet other men for sex. Some bathhouse owners tried to prevent sex among patrons while others, mindful of profits or prepared to risk prosecution, overlooked discreet homosexual activity.
Early records
1492 Florence In Florence, Italy, in 1492 there was a purge against the "vice of sodomy". The places used for homosexual acts were taverns, baths, and (sheds or houses used for illicit sex and gambling). The Eight of Watch (the city's leading criminal court) issued several decrees associated with sodomy, and on April 11, 1492, it warned the managers of bathhouses to keep out "suspect boys" on penalty of a fine. In the short period from April 1492 to February 1494, it convicted 44 men for homosexual relations not involving violence or aggravating circumstances. 1876 Paris In France the first recorded police raid on a Parisian bathhouse was in 1876 in the on the . Six men aged 14 to 22 were prosecuted for an "offence against public decency" and the manager and two employees for "facilitating pederasty". 1903 New York In the United States on February 21, 1903, New York police conducted the first recorded raid on a gay bathhouse, the Ariston Hotel Baths. 26 men were arrested, and 12 brought to trial on sodomy charges; seven men received sentences ranging from four to 20 years in prison.
Early gay bathhouses
In New York City, the Everard (nicknamed "the Everhard") was converted from a church to a bathhouse in 1888 and was patronized by gay men before the 1920s and by the 1930s had a reputation as the "classiest, safest, and best known of the baths". It was damaged by fire on May 25, 1977, when nine men died and several others were seriously injured. The Everard closed in 1986. Also popular in the 1910s were the Produce Exchange Baths and the Lafayette Baths (403–405 Lafayette Street, which from 1916 was managed by Ira & George Gershwin). American precisionist painter Charles Demuth used the Lafayette Baths as his favorite haunt. His 1918 homoerotic self-portrait set in a Victorian Turkish bath is likely to have been inspired by it. The Penn Post Baths in a hotel basement (the Penn Post Hotel, 304 West 31st Street) was a popular gay location in the 1920s despite a seedy condition and the lack of private rooms.
The American composer Charles Griffes (1884–1920) wrote in his diaries about visits to New York City bathhouses and the YMCA. His biography states: "So great was his need to be with boys, that though his home contained two pianos, he chose to practice at an instrument at the Y, and his favourite time was when the players were coming and going from their games."
In London, the Savoy Victorian-style Turkish Baths at 92 Jermyn Street became a favorite spot (opening in 1910 and remaining open until September 1975). The journalist A.J. Langguth wrote: "...[The baths at 92 Jermyn Street] represented a twilight arena for elderly men who came to sweat poisons from their systems and youths who came to strike beguiling poses in Turkish towels... although they were closely overseen by attendants, they provided a discreet place to inspect a young man before offering a cup of tea at Lyons." Regulars included Rock Hudson..
In the 1950s, Bermondsey's Victorian-style Turkish Baths"Grange Road Turkish Baths cooling-room" were rated by Kenneth Williams as "quite fabulous" in his diaries.
Modern gay bathhouses
In the 1950s, exclusively gay bathhouses began to open in the United States. Though subject to vice raids, these bathhouses were "oases of homosexual camaraderie" and were, as they remain today, "places where it was safe to be gay", whether or not patrons themselves identified as homosexual. The gay baths offered a much safer alternative to sex in other public places.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, gay bathhouses—now primarily gay-owned and operated—became fully licensed gay establishments which soon became major gay institutions. These bathhouses served as informal gay meeting places, places where friends could meet, relax and have sex. Gay bathhouses frequently threw parties for Pride Day and were usually open, and busy, on public holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, when some gay men, particularly those who had been rejected by their families due to their sexual orientation, had nowhere else to go. The American writer Truman Capote was a regular at New York City baths in the 1970s, in particular the sauna at West 58th Street.
Another service offered by the baths was voter registration. In the run-up to the 1980 election, the New St. Mark's Baths in New York City, with the assistance of the League of Women Voters, conducted a voter registration drive on its premises.
In Australia, the first gay steam bath was opened in Sydney in 1967. This was the Bondi Junction Steam Baths at 109 Oxford Street. From 1972 through 1977 the following gay steam baths opened: Ken's Karate Klub (nicknamed "KKK"), later called Ken's at Kensington; No. 253; King Steam; Silhouette American Health Centre; Colt 107 Recreation Centre; Barefoot Boy; and Roman Bath (nicknamed "Roman Ruins"). In Melbourne the first gay bathhouse was Steamworks at 279 La Trobe Street, which opened in 1979 and closed 13 October 2008.Church plans tower on gay sauna site The Age 25 May 2011 Adelaide's Pulteney 431 is one of the oldest gay saunas in Australia still in operation, having opened in 1977.
Gay saunas, as they are more commonly known in Australia and New Zealand, were present in most large cities in those countries by the late 1980s. As homosexuality was legalised in New Zealand and most Australian states during the 1970s and 1980s, there was no criminal conduct occurring on the premises of such "sex on site venues".
In the United Kingdom, gay saunas were routinely raided by police up until the end of the 1980s; for example, raids in May 1988 on Brownies in Streatham resulted in the establishment's owner getting a six-month jail sentence and a £5,000 fine, 'The draconian sentence (six months jail and a £5,000 fine) on the owner and manager of Brownies sauna for keeping a disorderly house is a case in point'. and the Brooklyn House Hotel sauna in Manchester. By the 1990s, with increasing scrutiny of the costs of such operations (charges of gross indecency in a sauna normally needing the expense of undercover officers), a reduced likelihood of successful prosecution, concerns of being perceived as homophobic, and little public interest in victimless crime, gay saunas became free to operate without the risk of being raided by police. Also, police attitudes meant that they were more willing to turn a blind eye because they preferred such activity to take place in a contained environment rather than outdoors even though users were still committing the homosexual sexual offence of gross indecency, until gross indecency was wiped from the statute books following the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Bathhouses today
Gay bathhouses today continue to fill a similar function as they did historically. The community aspect has lessened in some territories, particularly where gay men increasingly tend to come out.
Some men still use bathhouses as a convenient, safe place to meet other men for sex."Guys Reveal Best.and Worst Bathhouse Experiences," Queerty, February 7, 2016, https://www.queerty.com/guys-reveal-their-best-and-worst-bathhouse-experiences-20160207. In areas where homosexuality is more accepted, safety may no longer be a primary attraction.
Many bathhouses are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There is typically a single customer entrance and exit. After paying at the main entrance, the customer is buzzed through the main door. This system allows establishments to screen potential troublemakers; many bathhouses refuse entry to those who are visibly intoxicated, as well as known prostitutes. In some areas, particularly where homosexuality is illegal, considered immoral, or viewed with hostility, this is a necessary safety precaution.