New Rules on Baths Voted; Stop Short of Outright Ban

Expressing concern over the spread of AIDS, Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday ordered Health Director Robert Gates to adopt new regulations aimed at closing bathhouses that allow high-risk sexual activity.

The supervisors, despite the likelihood of a legal challenge, voted 4-0 to crack down on local bathhouses catering mostly to homosexual and bisexual men by requiring adherence to stringent health rules, including restrictions on private rooms.

The regulations, which Gates said would be enforced immediately, also give officials the authority to close a bathhouse or commercial club if there is evidence that sexual practices “posing a significant risk for the transmission of the AIDS virus” are taking place.

The supervisors stopped short of an outright ban on the county’s 12 remaining bathhouses--all of which are located in the city of Los Angeles--but the board members made it clear that their intent is to padlock all bathhouses.

Legal Barrier

A similar effort two years ago was blocked by a Superior Court judge who argued that officials had not proven that bathhouses were contributing to the AIDS epidemic. But supervisors said Tuesday they are confident that the latest order will withstand a legal test.

“Today, the evidence is more compelling that bathhouses are breeding grounds for AIDS. . . . How many people have to die unnecessarily before these places are shut down?” asked Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who described bathhouses as “a magnet for high-risk sex.”

Rabbi Allen Freehling, chairman of the County Commission on AIDS, which also backed the restrictions, said that there is a clear public health danger in gays and bisexuals engaging in sex in bathhouses and then doing the same with other partners.

“It seems to me that what we are really talking about is societal pollution,” Freehling said.

Under the county guidelines, not only bathhouses but “similar commercial establishments” that charge an admission fee and offer the use of a swimming pool, a spa or whirlpool, a communal bath or movies or videos on the premises would be subject to the new regulations.

The high-risk “restrictive activities” that make an establishment liable to closure are listed as anal or vaginal intercourse or oral copulation. To facilitate inspections and discourage sex acts, the new regulations also require private rooms to have viewing windows and admit only one person at a time.

Official ‘Suspicion’

Gates said he has “a suspicion” that the bathhouses are presently violating the newly adopted guidelines, but they cannot be closed without evidence. Gates said the evidence probably will come from public health inspections and undercover investigations.

“What we’re talking about are establishments that foster or at least accept the existence of high-risk sexual activities going on on their premises,” Gates said. “If they transform their operations where there is no sexual activity going on that would constitute risk, that’s different, but so far they haven’t.”

In calling for a total ban against bathhouses, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner argued against “half-measures” and said that the county health department could have closed the bathhouses without any new regulations.

“I think they chose not to (order closures)--and I would suggest irresponsibly. . . . (The health department took) the position that there was some . . . public health benefit for allowing these bathhouses to remain open,” said Reiner, addressing the board Tuesday.

He added that local health officials helped “sabotage” the county’s effort to enforce its previous regulations when department doctors said bathhouses were not a public health problem.

In defending his department, Gates said additional medical evidence has shown that high-risk sex at bathhouses is encouraging the spread of AIDS, and he admitted that county efforts to dissuade patrons from engaging in risky sexual practices through an educational campaign at bathhouses has apparently failed.

Protests From Owners

However, in protesting the county action, bathhouse owners and those opposing the new regulations contended that bathhouses remain the only place where many “closeted” homosexuals can get information on AIDS.

Some speakers said county supervisors are discriminating against gays in cracking down on bathhouses but not hotels or motels, which are excluded from the new regulations, and where they said high-risk sexual activity also takes place.

Hav Gefter, a 56-year-old bisexual and father of four, added that he has been going to bathhouses for 10 years and said sexual activity there “is overwhelmingly of the safe sex variety.”

In adopting the guidelines, the supervisors urged Los Angeles and the other 84 cities in the county to adopt similar regulations. They also asked Gates to consider drafting programs aimed at educating other possible AIDS victims, including intravenous drug users.