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New York City has brought back plenty of things from the ’80s—big hair and wildly expensive martinis, to name two—but one piece of gay nightlife has remained firmly stuck in the past. That could finally be about to change.
Two New York lawmakers are pushing to overturn a decades-old health regulation that effectively outlawed gay bathhouses in the city during the height of the AIDS crisis, potentially clearing the way for the once-thriving spaces to make a comeback.
State Senator Erik Bottcher and Assemblymember Tony Simone, both of whom represent parts of Manhattan, have introduced the Public Health Modernization Act, which would repeal the state regulation prohibiting public baths and similar establishments from setting aside areas for sexual activity. The legislation would also call for a modern public-health framework governing adult saunas.
“It’s 2026, not 1986,” Simone told the New York Times. “We have modern medicine and education.”
The rule dates to 1985, when officials were scrambling to contain the AIDS epidemic. New York City used the regulations to close gay bathhouses the following year, ending a culture that had been part of queer life for decades. Among the most famous was the Continental Baths, which opened beneath the Ansonia Hotel on the Upper West Side in 1968 and had a pool, saunas, disco, private rooms and a cabaret where a young Bette Midler famously performed with Barry Manilow accompanying her on piano.
RECOMMENDED: I sat in a sauna with 80 other people as we all gawked at the Aufguss Finals
Supporters argue that the public-health thinking that produced the ban no longer reflects how HIV prevention works today. HIV testing and treatment have advanced dramatically; PrEP can significantly reduce the risk of acquiring HIV; and harm-reduction strategies increasingly focus on reaching people where they are rather than attempting to eliminate sexual activity altogether.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde, told Gothamist that regulated bathhouses could actually become useful places for health outreach and prevention. The idea also has some recent precedent: Minneapolis repealed its own nearly four-decade-old bathhouse ban earlier this year.
Don’t start packing your towel just yet though. New York lawmakers ended their regular legislative session in June, and the proposal is not expected to be taken up until next year. (It is also not yet clear whether legislative leaders or Governor Kathy Hochul support it.)
Still, after more than 40 years, one of New York’s most storied forms of queer nightlife could finally have a path back—and this time, perhaps with considerably better public-health resources.