What could go wrong?
Now that the contagious disease AIDS is under control, New York lawmakers are seeking to bring back bathhouses known for wild sex romps with a new bill.
The bathhouses were all the rage, especially among the gay community, until they were legally banned in the 1980s following the spread of the then-deadly AIDS.
But that was then, according to Assemblymember Tony Simone and State Senator Erik Bottcher, who represent NYC’s gay community and share the same vision. Both are seeking to revive the “adult saunas,” the New York Post reported.
“We should bring it out of the shadows,” Simone said.
NY lawmakers want to bring back sex-fueled bathhouses – 40 years after ban during AIDS crisis https://t.co/zrBSIJs0nd pic.twitter.com/4aJpwFA3ZE
— New York Post (@nypost) August 5, 2026
“It was part of gay culture. These people are adults. Sex is consensual,” he said.
“The year is 2026, not 1986: 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,” Simone said in a statement.
“Queer New Yorkers are being forced into the shadows … we all know these places exist,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, there are several rumored bathhouses already quietly doing business despite the ban, according to the New York Post, but the lawmakers want to make them legal.
Allen Roskoff, longtime activist and president of the Jim Owles Liberal LGBT Democratic Club, also wants to see the return of the bathhouses despite allegedly losing friends to the AIDS/HIV epidemic.
Roskoff said the sex-fueled bathhouses of the past were not only tourist destinations, but also places where politicians and celebrities campaigned and performed.
“Gay men traveled from around the world to experience this uniquely New York institution. It’s time to shake off the fear and stigma of the past and let them reopen,” he said.
Not everyone in New York is on board with the idea.
“These bathhouses are a thing of the past. They were awful,” said Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino.
“It’s an open door. They would be ten times worse today.”
Bottcher, however, alluded to today’s reliable testing for HIV and effective treatments and preventions for AIDS for his argument.
“Emergency measures from another era should not become permanent public policy,” Bottcher said. “Actions taken at the height of the AIDS crisis are out of step with modern reality. The science has changed. Prevention has changed. Treatment has changed. It’s time for our laws to change too.”
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