New York City health officials may examine current policies regarding commercial sex venues in light of a recent health department report showing that new HIV infections dropped between 2001 and 2006 for all groups - except men under 30 who have sex with men (MSM).
In a memo to city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden, his special advisor, Dr. Thomas Farley, outlined present policy and options for revising it.
The first option would continue existing policy, under which sex clubs and bathhouses are subject to the city's building, fire, and other codes. Businesses found to violate codes would be warned, and they would be shut down if they ignored warnings.
A second option is to move aggressively and make "greater efforts to close sex clubs and 'private sex parties' that have fixed locations, regular hours of operation, and charge a fee," the memo states. The city General Counsel's office believes sex parties could be closed "based on circumstantial evidence (that is, without direct observation of sexual activity)," Farley wrote.
A state code written in 1985 banning sex in "any place in which entry, membership, goods or services are purchased" could be used "to close all commercial sex venues, including bathhouses currently in operation," wrote Farley. The city's legal office believes gay and AIDS activists would likely challenge this, maintaining that the men would go elsewhere for even riskier sex, the memo said.
Under a fourth option, the state code would be changed to allow regulated "bathhouses to operate under strict safe-sex rules, and allow 'private sex parties' to either become permitted bathhouses under these rules or risk closure as in option 2." The sites would post and enforce safe sex rules; ban private areas; offer HIV testing; and allow surveying of customers and regular health department inspections.
01/07/08
NEW YORK: Examining Bathhouse Policy, NYC Says HIV Infections Up
Source: Gay City News (New York City):: Duncan Osborne; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention