In reaction to a world that rejected homosexuality, the gay population was pressured to practice their sexual desires in secret. Facing societal brush-off and criminal prosecution, gay men were forced to retreat to public parks, restrooms, alleys, movie theater balconies, and train and bus depots to consummate their affections. Hence, bathhouses emerged as a cleaner and safer alternative to these public spaces.

Further, while providing an outlet for sexual frustration, bathhouses were able to cultivate a sense of belonging among gay men. Bathhouses have centered the gay community both by acknowledging a shared sexuality but also by legitimizing the gay lifestyle and supporting and protecting their members’ identities and rights. How did these centers come to be and for what purpose do they serve in modern times?

Homosexual men have flocked to public areas for anonymous sex for centuries. However, in most recent years the bathhouse has become, arguably, the epicenter of anonymous queer hook-ups. Sex usually takes place in private rooms rented by the members, though some establishments permit sex in public areas only excluding bathrooms, gyms, cafes, and lounge areas.

Historically, bathhouses have had their fair share of police raids. The illustrious Continental Bathhouse of New York City employed a secret light to warn their clients of police presence. Bathhouses have received even more flack for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. For this reason, many have taken educational and practical steps, like providing condoms and treatment, to combat the epidemic. The East Side Club, one of two remaining bathhouses in New York City, recently replaced its viewing room for pornographic videos with a free HIV-testing site in conjunction with New York University Medical Center.

In terms of actual amenities, bathhouses provide a wide range of options from Jacuzzis, pools, steam rooms, and saunas to video areas playing pornographic and non-pornographic films, mazes, glory holes, and orgy rooms. Glory holes—small holes conveniently placed at waist height—are often carved into public bathroom doors or between booths at adult video stores. Transforming the anonymous sex of the bathhouses into literal translation, they provide an impermeable wall designed for men to give and receive fellatio. In addition, buddy booths—cubicles separated by a glass partition that, at times, does not extend to the ground enabling occupants to touch each other—provide the same isolated intimacy. Even in straight video stores, glory holes and buddy booths are prevalent as men who do not necessarily identify with a gay identity and may be involved in a serious heterosexual relationship can satisfy their sexual needs without being discovered.

Successful bathhouses have integrated these public sex settings, such as glory holes, into their clubs for added appeal. According to Wikipedia, they established “fantasy environments” that “recreated erotic situations: Orgy rooms . . . encouraged group sex, while glory holes recreated [public] toilets, and mazes took the place of bushes and undergrowth [in public parks]. Steam rooms and gyms were reminiscent of the cruisy YMCAs, while video rooms recreated the balconies and back rows of movie theaters. A popular Chicago bathhouse called Man's Country provided a full-sized model of an Everlast truck where visitors could have sex in the cab or in the rear, which served as an orgy room . . . Man's Country also offered a . . . fake prison cell made of rubber bars.”

Gauging sexual interest from men in bathhouses is done stealthily. “In this highly sexualized environment, a look is frequently enough to express interest.” A simple nod also denotes interest as does an open door of a private room inviting sexual partners or encouraging observation and sometimes additional participation. At times, to further entice those peering through open doors men will lie in a manner that denotes the sexual act they crave: lying facedown insinuates he wishes to be penetrated anally while those who would prefer to penetrate or receive fellatio will lie on their backs, face up. A more blatant proffer is masturbation.

Many Internet sites detailing bathhouse etiquette warn against too much oral communication or you risk missing out on any other kind of oral. The danger lies in “becoming fellow cruising buddies rather than connecting with him sexually.” Although some men do cruise the bathhouses with friends, not necessarily engaging in sexual acts with them, and many manage to discover lasting friendships and relationships in the showers, many others prefer to remain anonymous and silent.

Historically, bathhouses replaced clandestine meetings in YMCA showers and truck stop bathrooms as a sexual rendezvous, and moreover became a community space. Ever since the late 19 th century in western cultures, men have congregated at bathhouses to avoid public humiliation and punishment. Solely gay bathhouses were constructed in the 1950s and although they were often subject to police raids, they were more expressly identified as “oases of homosexual camaraderie” and safe havens for gay sexual expression.

At the East Side Club, the 7,000 permanent members don’t tend to frequent gay clubs, so the bathhouse substitutes “as a safe environment instead of Central Park or places like that. And it’s contained,” explains Anthony who has worked at the club for 15 of its 30 years. The ethnically and socially diverse clientele average 30-50 years of age and tend to be blue and white collar workers who congregate to chat comfortably on hallway benches or to have sex in one of the 70 private rooms. Half of the men openly identity themselves as gay, while the occasional wedding band will pop up, these men gather and socialize in the club. A lunch group of 30-50 men attend every day like clockwork, cementing bonds of friendship and desire fostered by the club.

Later in the 1960s and 70s, these spaces “became a major gay institution,” serving as meeting places and social centers. And on Christmas and Thanksgiving as well as Pride Day, the bathhouses threw parties which fostered kinship and celebration among those who, often rejected by family and friends, might otherwise spend the holidays alone and miserable. These parties not only provided a substitute to melancholy and seclusion, but also reinforced the gay identity and authenticated and united the gay community. The significance of the bathhouse for the gay community subsists even today. Lamenting the closure of the only gay bathhouse in Buffalo, New York located nearby his parish, Reverend Allen Farabee noted in an Easter sermon in 2003, the gay community’s loss of “an alcove of safety in a hostile and threatening world.”

Clearly, the bathhouses serve far more than physical satisfaction, as the Reverend denotes them “a place of hospitality and welcome, a place where you can be yourself, a resting place for body and soul.” Nonetheless, the sexual component is still integral to the atmosphere. Why then do bathhouses tend to cater to the homosexual male demographic and have not expanded to other sexual clusters? One postulation is simply the old and tiring idiom that boys will be boys. When confronted with the idea of a straight bathhouse, most scoff at its suggestion, maintaining that “men are dogs. Put ‘em in a kennel, and you pretty much get what you’d expect.” An unsatisfactory reasoning at the least, as lesbian and straight sex clubs continue to proliferate.

Although lesbian bathhouses tend to be more social, catalyzing relationships and sexual unions outside the spa, more lesbians are coordinating sex circles and creating their own bathhouses or renting them out. The reason these areas have not mushroomed with the same alacrity as their male counterparts are the even greater threats of social marginalization befalling sexually open women. Further arguments suggest that the tempering role women supposedly provide in the heterosexual relationship does not exist among gay men in a bathhouse. Thus, “promiscuity was rampant because in an all-male subculture there was nobody to say ‘no.’” This partial conception, when put in the context of sexually independent females who partake in other promiscuous and anonymous sexual activity in public spaces, such as in swinging, dogging, or attending sex clubs and organizing sex and fetish parties, fails to explain the appeal and spread of all-male bathhouses.

It’s doubtful that the appeal is specifically tuned to the male gender, as women are now more willing and able to sexually express themselves without fearing Puritan backlash. As more spaces catering to other sexuality groups arise, the gay bathhouses provide an inspirational model. The gay bathhouse developed into a relatively safe and unassuming location for an ostracized fraction to find similar men with whom they could relate to and bond with sexually, if not emotionally as well. Bathhouses satisfy and personify the most basic of human needs: connection with others and forging an identity inside the greater community.