Bathhouses and AIDS

Michael Balter’s article “Bathhouses Foster Denial of AIDS Crisis” (Op-Ed Page, Feb. 23) fails to make the case for closing bathhouses.

Though Balter claims that the American Civil Liberties Union has “weighed in” on the side of the bathhouses, we have not yet taken a stand on Los Angeles County’s latest regulations.

In fact, it was in the summer of 1986 that the ACLU Foundation of Southern California claimed that L.A. County’s regulations violated the constitutional rights of bathhouse patrons and, perhaps as important, would hardly be effective in the fight against AIDS.

Closing down bathhouses will not educate people about the dangers of AIDS. Nor will it help deal with psychological problems like the denial of AIDS.

The only available weapon against AIDS is education. And if bathhouses are forums in which this education--including free distribution of condoms and encouragement of their use--can go on, then it would be a mistake to close them. The Superior Court judge who heard the case brought by the county in 1986 agreed and refused to close down the bathhouses. The county did not appeal.

Perhaps there is more evidence in 1988 than there was in 1986. The ACLU will be looking at this evidence carefully--to determine whether we should change our policy.

However, the dangers to basic civil liberties inherent in the government’s regulation of private sexual conduct--which includes the use of police surveillance in areas where sexual conduct takes place--are weighty concerns. Ones that can be outweighed only by the most compelling case of necessity.

PAUL HOFFMAN

Legal Director

ACLU Foundation

of Southern California

Los Angeles