Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. Rafael Mandelman, the District 8 supervisor, spearheaded the effort earlier this year, intending to introduce the legislation in February. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to remove the restrictions on “adult sex houses” that banned locked doors for private rooms rented by bathhouse patrons and required monitoring of the sexual activities of customers. This January, another pandemic threatened the planned reversal of the ban, but as the city reopens, the bathhouses will too. More than three decades ago, the HIV/AIDS pandemic closed gay bathhouses in San Francisco after the city and county declared them a “public nuisance” over alleged unsafe sex practices. Now, the city is removing the restrictions allowing for bathhouses to potentially return.During the HIV/AIDs pandemic, the city put restrictions on the bathhouses, forcing many of them to close.Bathhouses were once a major gathering place for gay men in San Francisco and other cities.
