San Diego repeals bathhouse ordinance passed during HIV/AIDS crisis
Two men in a sauna (Getty images, stock)
San Diego has officially removed a decades-old ordinance that targeted LGBTQ+ people from its books.
The San Diego City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday (1 September) to repeal a bathhouse ordinance originally passed in 1988 and amended in 1991, during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The law explicitly sought to regulate bathhouses in an effort to prevent gay and bisexual men from having sex and transmitting HIV, as reported by KPBS.
The ordinance had effectively been sitting unused for years. Council President Joe LaCava’s office brought the repeal forward after a staffer stumbled across it while searching the city’s municipal code. LaCava said the law was not being enforced by police or code enforcement, but argued that leaving it on the books still mattered because it reflected an “offensive and outdated perspective” of San Diego’s LGBTQ+ community.
Patrick Loose, who oversees San Diego County’s HIV, STD and Hepatitis Branch, said gay and bisexual men had already begun adopting safer-sex practices by the time the ordinance was passed, including reducing sexual partners, ending some anonymous encounters and using condoms.
Grassroots LGBTQ+ organisations that provided education, testing and safer-sex information without judgment were far more useful, Loose said. Public commenter Oxean Eddie Rey similarly pointed to the role bathhouses themselves played in providing education, testing and referrals during the AIDS crisis and later during the COVID-19 and mpox outbreaks.
The San Diego LGBT Community Center also says stigma remains a significant barrier to HIV prevention. Spokesperson Gus Hernandez said people who feel judged or stigmatised can be less willing to seek testing, while affirming, judgment-free services can make it easier for people to access care.
Loose said medications that can prevent HIV transmission are among the most effective tools available, while poverty and lack of access to healthcare remain major barriers to people getting them.
San Diego is not alone in revisiting laws created during the early years of the HIV pandemic. San Francisco repealed its bathhouse ordinance in 2024, Minneapolis repealed its bathhouse ban in June, and lawmakers in New York City are currently pushing to repeal a similar law.
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