In Quotes

How does bringing back gay bathhouses help anyone in the community?

“Are there hetero bathhouses in the area? Look, any moral or ethical rubric aside, why can’t we just treat everyone the same? People can form the consensual, age-appropriate sexual relationships they want. This doesn’t serve public safety and public health, gay, straight, or otherwise.

In prior days, such places ended up spreadling life-threatening STDs. That did disproportionately affect gay people more in ’70s and ’80s. One of the many reasons for removing laws against homosexuality and marriage restrictions was to allow gays to cultivate normative, healthy, long-term relationships and not have to seek out clandestine booze and drug-fueled parties because people couldn’t be public about their relationship.

All of my gay friends seem pretty set on getting rid of these stereotypes and images, or at least not having them define the LGBT community. Religion and all that aside, it demonstrated as a matter of both mental health and physical health that people are healthier if sex is not separated from love, affection, commitment.

What problem does such an establishment supposedly solve? What does it do to advance society and the health and well-being of gays or anyone else?”– A City Pages reader, responding to an article about Minneapolis’ gay bathhouses returning to the city

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