A gay bathhouse , also known as a gay sauna or a gay steambath , is a public bath targeted towards gay and bisexual men. In gay slang , a bathhouse may be called just "the baths", "the sauna ", or "the tubs". Historically, they have been used for sexual activity. Bathhouses offering similar services for women are rare, but some men's bathhouses occasionally have a " lesbian " or "women only" night.
Some, such as Hawks PDX , offer so-called "bisexual" nights, where anyone is welcome regardless of gender. Bathhouses vary considerably in size and amenitiesβfrom small establishments with 10 or 20 rooms and a handful of lockers to multi-story saunas with a variety of room styles or sizes and several steam baths , hot tubs , and sometimes swimming pools. Most have a steam room or wet sauna , dry sauna, showers, lockers, and small private rooms. In many countries, bathhouses are "membership only" for legal reasons ; though membership is generally open to any adult who seeks it, usually after paying a small fee.
Unlike brothels , customers pay only for the use of the facilities. Sexual activity, if it occurs, is not provided by staff of the establishment, but is between customers with no money exchanged.
These establishments first appeared in large European cities in the early 20th century, providing undercover and remote settings for same-sex interactions at a time when homosexuality was strongly stigmatized and illegal. Men began frequenting cruising areas such as bathhouses, public parks, alleys, train and bus stations, adult theaters, public lavatories cottages or tearooms , and gym changing rooms where they could meet other men for sex. Some bathhouse owners tried to prevent sex among patrons while others, mindful of profits or prepared to risk prosecution, overlooked discreet homosexual activity.
In New York City, the Everard nicknamed "the Everhard" [11] was converted from a church to a bathhouse in and was patronized by gay men before the s and by the s had a reputation as the "classiest, safest, and best known of the baths". The Everard closed in American precisionist painter Charles Demuth used the Lafayette Baths as his favorite haunt. His homoerotic self-portrait set in a Victorian Turkish bath is likely to have been inspired by it.
