One bathhouse, the Circle Club, at 17 West 60th Street, was closed in 1999. In 19, the Giuliani administration organized a task force of inspectors from the police, fire, health, and buildings departments, under the auspices of the Mayor’s Office of Midtown Enforcement, that made multiple inspections of the city’s bathhouses. The department produced no records that identified any enforcement effort in 2000 nor is Gay City News otherwise aware of any such effort. The Bear Cave/Vault apparently opened after a renter at the 28th Street location sublet his apartment and the sub-tenant converted it into a sex club. While the Gay Cable Network had produced a weekly cable news for 19 years the premises also doubled as a sex club. 25th Street, and the Bear Cave/Vault at 146 W. In 2001, the city warned the Christopher Street Book Shop, at 500 Hudson, and closed the Gay Cable Network, at 133 W.
#GAY SEX CLUBS IN NEW YORK CODE#
“Since I don’t think approach is the appropriate way to handle this problem my sense is that that is not bad thing,” he said.ĭocuments obtained under the open records law and prior interviews with health department officials suggest that the city’s enforcement of the state health code has ranged from very aggressive to non-existent. That is unfair to the sex clubs and porn shops, but it also means that what activists view as a lousy law is not regularly enforced, according to Johnson. “I don’t get a sense of a coherent, consistent approach.” “My sense is that it is being applied erratically,” he said. Ronald Johnson, associate executive director at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, or GMHC, said use of the code was spotty. I’m not familiar with the details of it, but there is a unit that does inspections.”
“There are regular inspections going on and there have been for many years. “If they violate the health code we should take appropriate action,” he said. Frieden, commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said that his department routinely inspected clubs. Whether these inspections presage what will be a regular effort is unclear. The answering machine at the Manhole was not accepting messages and Gay City News could not reach management at J’s Hangout or the Jewel Theater. Herald Price Fahringer, the attorney for Ann Street, declined to comment as did a Hellfire Club spokesperson. Activists have long objected to the state health code because it does not differentiate between safe and unsafe sex. Its ostensible intent is to prevent unsafe sex in businesses and to give government the means to close places where unsafe sex is occurring. The code was created in 1985 and amended in 1992.