Gay bathhouses could return to San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly four decades after they shuttered amid a court fight at the height of the AIDS epidemic, gay bathhouses could return to San Francisco under a policy change being sought by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, according to the Bay Area Reporter.
Mandelman planned to introduce legislation at the Feb. 11 board meeting that would lay the groundwork for how operators of gay bathhouses could reopen such establishments in the city. It would jettison the long-standing prohibition against having locked doors for private rooms rented by bathhouse patrons and rescind the requirement that such venues hire people to monitor the sexual activities of their customers, the Reporter noted.
PrEP is just one of several effective strategies health officials have in their arsenal nowadays that has led to a dramatic decline in new HIV infections in San Francisco.
Last year, the city reported for the first time that new HIV diagnoses had dipped below 200 in 2018. And San Francisco is on track to reach its goal this year of achieving a 90 percent reduction in new HIV cases as part of the city’s Getting to Zero strategy to end the HIV epidemic, the Reporter reports.
Published at Sat, 15 Feb 2020 18:04:04 +0000