"The leopard is not going to change its spots," said Ames.
He and others contend that the baths are the only place that many men on the fringe of the gay community can go to get the latest information about AIDS.Īlthough many gay baths have been converted to more traditional health clubs, with exercise equipment and swimming pools replacing private booths and hot tubs, Ames said he has no intention of going that road. It is foolish to pretend that if you closed the baths sex between men would stop."Īmes said the nature of the baths has changed completely and they now now cater to the least promiscuous segment of the gay population, the "highly closeted men, the married men, the military men, the men who cannot just stroll into a bar and strike up a conversation." "First of all, it would do no good," said George Ames, who for the last eight years has run the Club Baths in Southeast Washington near Capitol Hill, the District's only remaining gay bath. And the fear of contracting AIDS - acquired immune deficiency syndrome - has been sufficient to put many gay bathhouses out of business.īut gay activists, many of whom have spent years trying to safeguard their civil liberties, bristle at any suggestion that the government should lock the baths. Gay leaders have urged sexually active men to stay away from the baths. Probably no issue has caused more anguish and controversy in homosexual communities around the country during the last four years than whether gay bathhouses should be closed as a health hazard. People are terrified of getting the disease. "Our business started getting bad a couple of years ago," said Carl Aleshire, general manager of the Olympic, located on H Street near 14th Street NW. The Olympic Baths, which had been open since 1976, closed for the last time, an apparent casualty of growing fear of AIDS. Last week, the District had two gay bathhouses.