New York lawmakers are seeking to repeal a decades-old public-health restriction that effectively prevents venues from operating as gay bathhouses, arguing that regulated spaces would be safer than forcing sexual activity into less visible settings.
State Senator Erik Bottcher and Assemblymember Tony Simone, two openly gay lawmakers representing overlapping parts of Manhattan’s West Side, have introduced legislation known as the Public Health Modernization Act.
The proposal would remove a restriction adopted at the height of the AIDS crisis and establish a modern licensing framework for adult saunas and bathhouses.
Current New York health regulations state: “No establishment shall make facilities available for the purpose of sexual activities where anal intercourse, vaginal intercourse or fellatio take place. Such facilities shall constitute a threat to the public health.”
Although the regulation is not explicitly limited to gay venues, it was used by New York City authorities to close gay bathhouses during the mid-1980s.
Supporters of the reform say those venues once played an important role in queer life, providing spaces for sex, socialising, entertainment and community at a time when gay men had fewer places in which they could gather openly.
Many bathhouses across the United States were closed during the AIDS crisis as governments attempted to slow HIV transmission. Activists and business owners were divided over whether closing the venues protected public health or pushed sexual activity into locations where education, testing and safer-sex resources were less accessible.
New York adopted its adult-sauna restrictions in 1985, and the city relied on them to close gay bathhouses the following year.
‘Bring it out of the shadows’
Simone said regulating bathhouses would acknowledge that consensual adult activity is already taking place while creating safer and more accountable environments.
“We should bring it out of the shadows,” Simone said in a 5 August interview with the New York Post. “It was part of gay culture. These people are adults. S*x is consensual.”
“The year is 2026, not 1986,” he continued in a statement announcing the bill. “Evidence-based practices informed by the past 30 years of public health research make it clear we should repeal the ban on adult-use bathhouses and saunas.”
The legislation would replace the existing prohibition with contemporary health, safety and licensing standards.
Bottcher said the ban had outlived the emergency conditions in which it was created and could undermine its original public-health purpose by pushing people into unregulated spaces.
In announcing the proposal, he pointed to significant developments in HIV prevention, testing and treatment, including pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP.
“The science has changed. Prevention has changed. Treatment has changed. It’s time for our laws to change too,” Bottcher wrote.
Regulated spaces could support health outreach
Supporters argue that licensed bathhouses could provide opportunities for sexual-health education, HIV and STI testing, condom distribution and referrals to services.
Dr Demetre Daskalakis, chief medical officer at LGBTQ+ health provider Callen-Lorde, said his previous work in such venues demonstrated their potential value as places for health outreach and prevention.
He argued that bringing people together in visible, regulated spaces could help healthcare providers build trust and connect with communities they might otherwise struggle to reach.
Medical advances have dramatically altered the HIV landscape since New York’s regulation was introduced. PrEP can greatly reduce the risk of acquiring HIV, while effective treatment can reduce the virus to an undetectable level, meaning it cannot be sexually transmitted.
Advocates say those advances make a blanket prohibition less effective than a model based on regulation, education and access to preventive healthcare.
A small number of venues marketed as men’s saunas or clubs continue to operate in New York City, but the existing regulation restricts establishments from knowingly making facilities available for specified sexual activity.
Repealing it could allow openly operated and purpose-built venues to return under formal health and safety requirements.
New York would not be alone in reconsidering policies introduced during the AIDS crisis. Minneapolis removed its own longstanding bathhouse restriction in 2026, while adult saunas operate legally under varying regulations in several other US and international cities.
The Public Health Modernisation Act must progress through the New York Legislature before it can take effect. Until then, the existing state regulation remains in place.
