Zoning fix aims to clear last hurdle for SF gay bathhouses
A final hurdle for reopening gay bathhouses in San Francisco should be removed by Pride Month. The proposed zoning change will also allow adult sex venues to operate in neighborhoods historically home to LGBTQ districts.A prohibition against such businesses having locked rooms, enacted in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS epidemic, was officially lifted in early 2021.
Yet zoning restrictions remain in place preventing adult sex businesses from operating in most of the city.The issue is why Eros, the sex club for queer and trans men, has yet to open in its new Tenderloin location.
In December, it closed its longtime home on upper Market Street and began moving into 132 Turk Street.The building had been the site of the gay Bulldog Baths in the late 1970s and 1980s.
More recently, a dog groomer and kennel using the name of the old gay bathhouse had operated in the space followed by an artist collective.Today, the upper floors of the former bathhouse are being turned into apartments with the baths' historic address of 130 Turk Street.
