Swinger clubs have always faced its own set of woes -- especially the threat of being shut down. Fortunately, conservative authorities haven't succeeded, until now. Health departments in Manhattan and Los Angeles believe that on-premise sex clubs pose a health threat to the community at large. Gay sex clubs are the first to come down.
Recently, a few New York sex clubs and saunas have been court ordered to close after incidents of unsafe sex. According to undercover health department inspectors, they have witnessed 33 acts of high-risk sex in the Wall Street Sauna, a gay bathhouse in Manhattan, since June 2003.
The same issue has risen in Los Angeles where the health department also seeks to regulate unsafe sex in saunas and sex clubs. Efforts to require gay bathhouses and sex clubs to obtain health department licenses to operate are already underway. If Los Angeles county public health chief, Jonathan Fielding, has his way, all sex clubs and bathhouses would be required to provide protection, offer HIV testing, and forced to be shut down if patrons are discovered engaging in unprotected sex.
Though this particularly affects the gay community at the moment, it's not far off the mark from on-premise swinger clubs. These clubs permit sex on premises, and do not regulate safe sex, however the clubs cater to heterosexual couples and bisexual women. If the health department cracks down on the gay community and their sex clubs, it is only a matter of time before owners of swinger clubs find themselves within the same predicament. For the political arena, it just so happens that gays are an easier target for the mainstream.
If the health department has its way, "private clubs will be subject to searches and will have to keep a database of individuals, with their names and addresses, who have unsafe sex." A lawyer representing 9 of the 11 Los Angeles sex clubs under fire called the initiative "discriminatory".
And I must insert here, that I wholeheartedly agree with the attorney. It is an abomination to even suggest the possibility that anyone should be registered in a database based on sexual activity. Where has our privacy gone? Isn't it our right to choose what we do and whom we do it with behind closed doors? I imagine it won't be long before the ACLU gets a hold of this issue.
And beyond the issue of privacy, does not the health department realize individuals and couples that attend sex clubs and saunas are consensual adults. Don't we have the capacity, and the right, to make our own decisions? Even in regards to public worries of unsafe sex, people understand the risks if they paid attention in school. Which brings me full circle to issues of banning sex education from schools. If the government is so concerned with sexual health threats, they should use their budget to fund sex education programs rather than promoting abstinence.
Let it be known that sex is a fundamental and biological drive to the human condition--like eating, sleeping, and using the restroom. Teaching abstinence does nothing to answer questions, promote safe sex, or sexually liberate anyone. Add sexual regulation of sex clubs and saunas, and we'll have to go underground. One health department official in Los Angeles suggested testing gay sex club attendees for HIV. I want to ask for what purpose? Many times test results are false positive, false negative, or otherwise inconclusive. I suppose they will need another list!
At the moment, if the county health department wants to shut down a club, they must take them to court. At least some democracy seems to exist, but what a waste of taxpayer money and time!
