Local News in Brief : Bid to Close Bathhouses

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner is preparing to file lawsuits in the next few weeks in an effort to close some of Los Angeles County’s 12 gay bathhouses, a spokesman said.

The move, part of an effort to stem the spread of AIDS, would be based on two months of undercover investigations coordinated by Reiner. It would be the first legal action taken by the county against the bathhouses in nearly two years, despite widespread medical opinion that they constitute a health hazard.

In 1986, the county’s effort to close the bathhouses was dismissed by a Superior Court judge, who said the county provided insufficient evidence to prove its claim that the businesses contribute to the spread of AIDS.

San Francisco officials were able to close virtually all bathhouses in their city, however, by documenting many sightings of unsafe sex.

Reiner’s spokesman, Schuyler Sprowles, said the county’s lawsuit will accuse several bathhouses of violating a county law banning sex at the spas. Sprowles refused to identify the bathhouses.