“Evil Is in the Eyes of the Beholder”: Commercialized Male Same-Sex Sexual Activity and Venereal Disease in Vancouver’s Bathhouse Debates

Amid growing alarm about AIDS in the early 1980s, North American bathhouses catering to men seeking sex with men became focal points in an increasingly contentious struggle, one that appeared to pit public health forces against those defending their sexual and civil liberties. Too frequently, observers have viewed this clash in isolation, and not as an outgrowth of conflicts brewing for decades. Drawing on newspapers and the records of community groups and city officials in Vancouver, British Columbia, this presentation offers a case study for how gay activism—first that of homophile organizers, and later gay liberationists and businessmen—intersected with civic concerns about venereal disease (VD) in bathhouses in the 1960s and 1970s.

The presentation will contrast conflicts from two different historical moments to examine the changing responses to the specter of VD transmission among men in Vancouver. In 1965, when sex between men was illegal in Canada, local VD control officers reported that men who named male sexual contacts increasingly listed steam baths as sites of syphilis exposure. Without opposition from a fledgling local homophile organization, Vancouver’s civic officials quietly opted to address the problem with a by-law amendment regulating these establishments. In 1969, the federal government moved to partially decriminalize same-sex erotic contact; the resulting increase in commercialized gay venues saw earlier concerns about VD grow significantly during the 1970s. A far more public and multi-faceted debate about bathhouses ensued. Featuring the perspectives of health and police officers, lawyers, urban planners, and gay activists, the presentation will explore the diversity of attitudes towards bathhouses and VD prevention long before the emergence of the AIDS epidemic. It will also reflect on the notable absence of one figure from these discussions: the male hustler, who—unlike his female counterpart—appears to have seldom aroused VD-related concerns during this period.