AP: Bathhouses In Decline

The Associated Press reports that the nation's dwindling number of bathhouses are facing tough financial times.

In the heyday of bathhouses in the late 1970s, there were nearly 200 gay bathhouses in cities across the U.S., but by 1990, the total had dropped to approximately 90, according to Damron, the publisher of an annual gay travel guide. In the last decade, bathhouses, including ones in San Diego, Syracuse, Seattle and San Antonio, have shut down and the total nationwide is less than 70. Most patrons are older.

Hollywood Spa — one of the largest bathhouses in Los Angeles, a city regarded as the country's bathhouse capital — closed in April. Owner Peter D. Sykes said fewer customers and rising rent put an end to four decades in business. "Bathhouses were like dirty bookstores and parks: a venue to meet people," said Sykes, who still owns the smaller North Hollywood Spa. "Today, you can go to the supermarket."

Bathhouses date to the Roman Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, American bathhouses were built in many cities to maintain public hygiene among poor and immigrant communities. Chicago and Manhattan each had about 20 public bathhouses. But the need for public places to wash up declined and by the 1950s and '60s, bathhouses largely had become rendezvous spots for gays, prompting occasional raids because sodomy was still criminalized.

RELATED: While bathhouses may be a doomed industry (at least in the United States), the number of titty bars, many of which discreetly (and not so discreetly) allow on-site sex, has zoomed to more than 4000. According to one estimate, heterosexual sex clubs (AKA strip clubs/titty bars) gross more than $3B annually.

EGYPT: 14 Gay Men Arrested At Sauna

Egyptian authorities have arrested 14 gay men for "committing homosexual acts" at an underground Cairo sauna that may have presented itself as a medical center.

An Egyptian prosecutor ordered on Saturday (12 October) that they be held for four days to enable them to be sent to a pathologist 'for forensic reports'. He has also ordered and that the centre be shut down and that all evidence be confiscated whilst investigations were carried out. The Egyptian authorities raided the centre after confirmed reports that the 'immoral acts' were occurring between males aged between 18 to 57 years old. Egypt has a poor record on LGBT rights. Under the Mubarak regime, homosexuality was seen as 'taboo', with strict punishments for those accused of being gay. Following the revolution in 2011, conditions have not improved, with the previously-in-power Muslim Brotherhood's delegation to the UN not considering gays to be 'real people'.

More from Gay Star News:

Neighbors have broken into a gym and sauna in Egypt and ‘destroyed it’ after a police raid against gay sex, according to unconfirmed reports GSN has received. Some reports are suggesting the 14 [arrested men] were paraded to the police station either naked or only partly clothed after the raid on Friday (11 October). A prosecutor ordered they should be held for ‘forensic reports’. Again unconfirmed reports suggest this may include ‘anal probe’ tests to examine if they have engaged in gay anal sex. These tests, often used in the Middle East and North Africa have been discredited as scientifically meaningless and are considered a form of torture by international human rights bodies. The men who may undergo this range in age from just 18 to 57. Egyptian media and GSN reported the number of arrests at 14 but it has now emerged that may just be the number of ‘clients’ rounded up in the raid. Workers and the ‘health club’ manager have also apparently been detained.

More about the venue from Buzzfeed:

“Information had been received about the center’s illegal activity, and that it welcomed perverted men and boys to practice immorality in its rooms. The investigation has proved the information correct; the center was raided, and 14 men were caught, in positions that are against religious precepts,” reported the State-run Akhbar el-Youm newspaper. “Also, the management staff were caught along with a large quantity of pills and sexual stimulants. It emerged that the center only engages in this illegal activity in return for payments of between 50 and 200 pounds [$7–$28] for one encounter.”

Renowned activist Scott Long writes on his blog:

“I have at least one friend who has visited. It was a small gym and sauna, converted from a private apartment and operating as a business for years. It’s well known in the surrounding streets; when my friend went there about three years ago — before the Revolution — and asked directions, the neighbors said ‘Oh, the hammam’, or baths, and pointed the way. The entry fee was 25 pounds back then. It’s unlikely the price has gone up eightfold in the interim, so the figures the police gave (with the strong suggestion of prostitution) are probably nonsense. There is a good chance that the ‘pills and sexual stimulants’ the police found are vitamins, or even steroids.”

The Vatican Owns A Bathhouse

Delicious.

A day ahead of the papal conclave, faces at the scandal-struck Vatican were even redder than usual after it emerged that the Holy See had purchased a €23 million (£21 million) share of a Rome apartment block that houses Europe’s biggest gay sauna.

The senior Vatican figure sweating the most due to the unlikely proximity of the gay Europa Multiclub is probably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples, who is due to participate in tomorrow’s election at the Sistine Chapel.

This 76-year-old “prince of the church” enjoys a 12-room apartment on the first-floor of the imposing palazzo, at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor entrance to the steamy flesh pot. There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of which house priests.

From the sauna's website:

Behind this door an exciting and comfortable world is waiting for you... A place created by males and for males only. A place where you will forget about stress, uncertainties, fears and enjoy the priceless pleausre of beeing yourself! Here you will find: king turkish bath, finnish sauna, giant whirlpool, waterfall whirlpool, relaxation rooms with videos, gym with Tecnogym equipments, cinema, aesthetics - solarium - massage, parties - shows - surprises, music therapy e aromatherapy, chromotherapy, EMC Cafe' open non-stop!

No Homocon 2012 For Porno Pete

At least he can still get in free at the Ybor City bathhouse. That special runs until the end of the week, Petey!

TAMPA: Venue For GOProud's Homocon 2012 Hosts Monthly Fetish Sex Parties

Ybor City's Honey Pot, the venue for GOProud's Homocon 2012 event during the GOP convention, also hosts monthly fetish sex parties. Interesting. And we are already know that the Honey Pot is just three gay skips from the "discreet rear entrance" of the local bathhouse, which is offering free admittance to RNC attendees. GOProud's Chris Barron says he doesn't give a fuck what we think about his party in a sex club. Good for him! I wonder if all those uptight wingers will feel the same way once they find out?
(Via AmericaBlog Gay)