Bathhouses Are Returning to San Francisco for the First Time Since the 1980s

The San Francisco Planning Commission has approved permits for Sanctum Baths, a two-story gay bathhouse set to open near the historic Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District in the city’s South of Market neighborhood, per the Washington Post. The venue will open by the end of 2027, according to the East Bay Area Reporter. Sanctum is the first bathhouse to be approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors since it repealed its AIDS-era ban on the establishments in 2020, per the San Francisco Chronicle. In past years, as many as 20 gay bathhouses operated in San Francisco. Jonathan Ojinaga, a business owner and board member of the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District said during public comment for the proposed building that it would be a boon to the neighborhood’s business and give new life to a “dark, inactive building.” “This project is necessary, compatible, and highly desirable,” he said, in comments reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s exactly what our neighborhood needs.”In 1984, the San Francisco Department of Public Health issued a de facto moratorium on bathhouses, instituting new rules that banned private rooms with locked doors in bathhouses and also required staff to monitor sex between patrons, per the Reporter. Though the de facto ban was repealed in 2020, the city then had to pass another ordinance updating the city’s zoning codes to allow for bathhouses once again. Earlier this year, Minneapolis repealed its bathhouse ban as well. The Minnesota city’s repeal follows San Francisco’s model, emphasizing that gay bathhouses can be places where people can engage in sex safely while serving as potential hubs for public health information. In August, New York state Sen. Erik Bottcher introduced legislation to repeal state regulations prohibiting adult saunas, as well. “The science has changed. Prevention has changed. Our laws need to keep pace when the facts on the ground change,” Bottcher told The Advocate in an interview. ??