From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 16:53:02 -0500 Subject: Reopen SF baths, now! For Immediate Release Contact: Michael Petrelis November 8, 1996 (415) 621-6267 SEX CLUB LEGISLATION TO BE DEBATED AT PUBLIC HEALTH MEETING; GAYS DEMAND BATHHOUSES BE RE-OPENED San Francisco - The Coalition for Healthy Sex, a group of sex club owners, AIDS service organizations and the San Francisco Department of Public Health's AIDS Office, will be holding its regularly scheduled monthly meeting next week. Among the issues to be discussed are: the proposed regulating of sex clubs, and a demand by patrons of such establishments to allow the bathhouses to be re-opened. WHAT: Public Meeting WHERE: SF AIDS Office 25 Van Ness Avenue, 5th Floor DATE: Tuesday, November 12 TIME: 4:30 p.m. This meeting will be the first opportunity for members of the gay community to discuss the sex club legislation. Gay AIDS activist Michael Petrelis will propose that the Coalition endorse re-opening bathhouses in San Francisco. "If sexually repressed Washington, DC, can operate a gay male bathhouse, in the shadow of the US Capitol building, no less, why can't San Francisco? Bathhouses would allow me to rent a room and comfortably engage in safe sodomy, by using the Reality anal condom, behind closed doors. Which is possible at the Steamworks in Berkeley, and the Watergarden in San Jose," said Petrelis, who frequently goes to sex clubs. "It's time San Francisco re-join the ranks of cities with gay bathhouses. After all, bathhouses and sex clubs don't spread AIDS, people practicing unprotected sex do, and that behavior probably happens more in hotels on Nob Hill." The Coalition for Healthy Sex is backing the sex club legislation, which should be considered by the Board of Supervisors at the end of November. At this juncture, no town hall meetings are planned for the gay community to have input into the legislation. Some letters to gay newspapers indicate opposition to the legislation exists at this point. --30-- From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 00:51:59 -0500 Subject: SF sex club legislation (STATEMENT PRESENTED AT THE S.F. COALITION FOR HEALTHY SEX MEETING.) Kill the legislation, not gay sexuality by Michael Petrelis, Ph. # (415) 621-6267 November 12, 1996 The proposed sex club legislation must be killed for two reasons. 1) The new regulations would do nothing to stop AIDS transmission amongst gay men. 2) The legislation would greatly increase government control over an important aspect of gay life. While I believe there should be uniform fire and building codes for the sex clubs, the legislation goes far beyond that. Halting AIDS was dealt a serious setback when the health department closed the bathhouses in the 1980s, in response to AIDS hysteria. AIDS prevention has been dishonest ever since. Gay men have paid for that deceit with our lives because many of us naively believed where we engaged in sex was a risk associated with AIDS, not what kind of sex we practiced. San Francisco is the only city in America, indeed the world, that shut down all of its gay bathhouses. Now, under the guise of wanting to protect gay men who visit sex clubs, Supervisor Tom Ammiano, the health department, AIDS service agencies, and the Coalition for Healthy Sex have put forward legislation that grants the police department expanded power over who operates the sex clubs. Excuse me, but in light of the police bust on the New Year's Eve AIDS party, why would gays put any more control over any aspect of our lives and institutions in the cops hands? The new legislation requires applicants who want to run a club to submit fingerprints to the cops. What this has to do with stopping AIDS, or guaranteeing there are well lit fire exits in the clubs, is beyond me. It seems like a police power grab and makes me nervous. The matter of mandating safe sex rules, as determined by the health department, is somewhat good intentioned, but still troubling. I simply don't believe it ever benefits the gay community to allow the government, any branch of it, to rule over our sexual conduct. Since when did the gay agenda include relinquishing personal responsibility for healthy sex to bureaucrats? If our health department were serious about halting AIDS in the gay community, it would FINALLY make free penile condoms permanently available in gay bars. The department could also educate gays about the Reality anal condom, and make it available free at sex clubs that permit anal sex. Give me the tools, not the rules. Finally, debate must begin to allow bathhouses to re-open. There is no scientific evidence proving bathhouses, or sex clubs, are more responsible than hotel rooms or bedrooms for gays contracting AIDS. Bathhouses could serve not only as sexual gathering spots, but AIDS education centers as well. San Francisco should re-join the ranks of cities with a gay bathhouse, since many gays want one here. It's time to kill the sex club legislation--not gay sexuality.