Detroit gay bath house

A strange twist in Detroit’s data finds infection is nearly equal between men and women, and ethnically blind. Some state lawmakers are attempting to remove both, which they consider arcane, from the books (“Indecent proposal,” Metro Times, July 9-15).

Kosofsky’s so concerned about the possibilities of police raids and abusive governmental control, he asks Metro Times to withhold the names of Detroit’s bathhouses.

Anyone who thinks that bathhouse regulation would curb the spread of syphilis need only look at one document to learn otherwise.

I would have been fine without it, as I would rather give my money to such an establishment to keep it going, alive, for EONS to come. Above a string of plastic American flags, the afternoon is clear and breezy. They should be boarded up for facilitating the spread of STDs, or they need to remain open as viable avenues for prevention outreach.

“People have wrapped themselves in latex, they’ve concerned themselves with that stuff — and they’re getting tired of it.”

Cruise controls

Peterson, the health crusader, and Joshua, the bathhouse patron, offer an important key to understanding the parallels between bathhouses and increases in syphilis and HIV infection.

What happens inside a bathhouse isn’t something that many patrons are eager to talk about.

“People don’t want their business known,” says “Joshua,” a 27-year-old gay activist who agrees to be interviewed on the condition that his real name isn’t used. Even though MAPP officials and Between the Lines view TNT as unresponsive to outsiders who encourage safe sex, the TNT staffers seem currently to be encouraging it themselves.

Meanwhile, in Oakland County total cases dipped during the same period from 45 cases to 29. Finding the wet sauna, I take a seat in the dark and watch as two men face each other, masturbating.

“If it is more hidden from people like me, we are going to have a hard time getting people the information that they need.”

Crackdowns merely lead to creation of new places where disease might flourish, he says. No, I don’t really think so. People who are in the know and are involved in the place see it almost as an institution.”

Just as Joshua sees both places as social institutions that provide necessary, controlled places for men looking to hook up, bathhouse opponents see the effects of the baths as a detriment to advancing acceptance of the gay male lifestyle.

“People in the gay community say, ‘We’ve made lemonade out of this oppressive lemon,’” Savage says.

Two of the four leading sexual risk behaviors that Michigan’s Department of Community Health says contributes to the spread of syphilis — “sex with unknown partners” and “more than four partners in the last year” — are commonplace within the baths. During visits to Detroit’s two baths over the next two weeks, I never engage in any sexual activities or interact with patrons as a reporter; I just watch.

Those who submit negative reviews should open their eyes and realize. “What about them? They sit mutely in the hot tub or the steam room or TV rooms. SO MUCH fun for such costs. If caught early, syphilis is easily cured with penicillin.