Saturday, February 07, 2015

SF's New Gay Sex Club & Reopening the Bathhouses

This is the most fantastic news for men who enjoy sexual escapades with other dudes in a bricks-and-mortar space that I've heard in a long time.


A new gay male sex club has opened at 442 Natoma in the South of Market district and is a private membership venue. CumUnion parties that were formerly held at the now-closed BrigSF playspace are hosted at the new club. Don't you just love it when such places use their addresses as the name of the business, making it so helpful for folks to remember where the business is located?

We've all heard tales of gay male sex spaces losing business because dudes are using apps and online cruising sites for hookups, and that we supposedly need fewer physical spaces to meet each other and get it on.

Surely there's been a huge migration from bars and clubs to the web for horned homos hunting for sexual fun and love, but do not underestimate or dismiss the large segment of gay men who prefer to do their cruising and playing in bathhouses and clubs.

Speaking of bathhouses, I was at the Tuesday, Feb. 4 meeting of the San Francisco health commission at 101 Grove Street and use public comment to advocate for reopening the bathhouses to feed two birds with one seed.

We need bathhouses as a meeting place for gay men to enjoy each other's company behind closed doors, unlike in sex clubs where all activities must be viewable at all times by the staff, and so that homeless people can have facilities to wash up and maintain hygiene, I told the commission.

Right now, I said, homeless people are suffering from diseases due to lack of showering and if we walked down one block to the main library's restrooms, we'd likely find such folks trying to wash their bodies using the small sinks.

If you've been to the 442 Natoma club, please let me know what you think of the place and best of luck to the owners for a business that thrives.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You’re not exactly selling the idea with your conflating homeless hygiene issues with casual gay sex.

First, regarding the homeless, the diseases the homeless are carrying are more than likely a result of heath choices (alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc.) and not so much about hygiene. The hygiene issues may cause a cut to fester or a rash to intensify; or may even cause the individual to get bugs like lyce, but they’re not going to result in full blown diseases. Also, if the homeless who are not interested in some casual sex need a place to clean up there are emergency shelters, gyms, and even traveling bus-showers.

Second, regarding casual gay sex, this isn't really an issue that needs fixing. There are about 1000 different ways to find a hook-up. Saying "hey, you can go have sex at this place where the homeless are taking showers" should not be their marketing technique. There’s a reason why bath houses closed. They were gross cootie traps filled with drugs, sanitation issues and illegal activity. We will just have to see how long this one lasts

Unknown said...

Relax, Anon. The City is not about to open bathhouses for anyone in the near future.

Anonymous said...

What are you even talking about? You comment as if there aren't already bath houses in San Francisco. Google Eros in San Francisco and see what you find

Unknown said...

Hello Anon. Here's what I'm talking about. This BAR story, which you can Google to find, reports that bathhouses do not currently operate in the City:
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68989

That article, from 2013, stated Eros was applying for a bathhouse permit. Bathhouses are establishments with shower facilities AND private cubicles.

All commercial sex clubs in SF lack cubicles with doors. That is what I am talking about.

Tiger said...

This place sucks. It's small and deserted with just a few guys. Also they are cash only and direct you to an ATM on 6th street right in Crack central. I mean c'mon even the dude selling tshirts on the street can afford Square