An issue has crept up in Los Angeles that has remained somewhat under the radar but has the potential to erode not only our privacy but our civil rights: Public health officials are scrutinizing the bathhouses.

It happens like this: When infections go up, public officials look around for something or someone to blame. In this case, public health officials have conducted a study looking at HIV infection and syphilis rates among bathhouse patrons. Call us crazy, but isn’t there something shady about singling out patrons at particular clubs and venues for testing, and doing it in the name of public health? If it’s OK to scrutinize the health of patrons at certain venues, will it also be OK to scrutinize the patrons at our community bars, coffeehouses like David’s Coffeehouse, and even hotels in gay communities that are also favorite hookup venues for casual sex?

It boils down to this: When city and county officials start wanting to legislate and discriminate against legitimate, legal gay businesses simply because casual sex happens there, it’s time to take notice. We in the community sometimes have mixed feelings about these businesses ourselves – it’s time for us to realize that consensual sex between two adults is just that: consensual sex between two adults. It’s not illegal, it’s not illegitimate, it’s not even dangerous.

What it is, is one big distraction from the real problem. It’s obvious that climbing infection rates in HIV and syphilis, after a decade of decline, is an issue that should be spotlighted and addressed proactively and on every front. The way forward is difficult –it’s through education, prevention, changing people’s habits and culture.

But regulating or closing our community’s bathhouses is an easy diversion from addressing a real problem head on – it’s like promoting abstinence among school kids rather than taking on the more difficult task of educating them about safe sex.

But the policy of regulating bathhouses is not only a costly diversion from the realities of a problem, it’s also a gross invasion of privacy – even of civil rights.

Already there is a 16-year-old Los Angeles city ordinance that gives the city the right to close down a venue where patrons engage in unprotected sex. Does that mean they will be taking the doors off of Hilton Hotel rooms where heterosexuals engage in unsafe sexual practices during their lunch hour? Enforcing this kind of regulation is expensive, requiring undercover police officers, and a gross invasion of privacy. Often bathhouses are forced to require open sex rooms, with private rooms outlawed, so that all safe-sex practices can be fully documented. Does anyone else out there think that this is going too far?

Yet still the debate rages, and possibly has since the time of the Greeks, who popularized the bathhouse tradition.

The recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study that has renewed this issue in Los Angeles reported that 11 percent of bathhouse patrons in L.A. County showed new diagnoses of HIV infection compared to 1.5 percent in the general population.

Scientists like statistics – but can we look beyond the statistics and realize that perhaps it’s obvious that more men in a bathhouse are likely to have HIV? The audience sitting at the Ken Cinema’s showing of Priscilla Queen of the Desert perhaps is also more likely – but no one would suggest closing the Ken Cinema. Bathhouses get the blame because men meet men at these venues for sex. But the Internet is widely reported also as the hottest, most used venue for hooking up for quick sex encounters. Shall we shut down the Internet? Should we ban newspapers that run gay personals? Shall we close down the bars and coffeehouses where men also hook up casually?

If all of this sounds far-fetched, pay attention: The Los Angeles Times reported last month, “health department officials plan to discuss changing the law to include all gay sexual encounter venues, whether or not they offer baths …” Are we alone in feeling that regulating “high risk venues”, or venues where large numbers of HIV positive gay men hang out, crosses a very shaky line?

Concern for HIV should not be a mask to hide behind while policing and discriminating against legitimate community adult businesses. If anything, our city’s well-run bathhouses, like Club San Diego and the Vulcan, can be used as venues to promote safe-sex encounters – something that is more difficult to do outside of the safety of the bathhouses.

What will also be taken away here in San Diego are some of our community’s most supportive and generous businesses – Club San Diego owner Darl Edwards and Vulcan owner Frank Stiriti have been go-to people for the community and its needs for years (a quick call to just one local community organization revealed that Stiriti and Edwards gave $10,000 and $25,000, respectively, for the year 2003 alone.) Stiriti is active not only in the GLBT community but in the Little Italy business community, where his business is entirely accepted not only as legitimate but as a valuable contribution to the community at large.

Even if you’ve never set foot in a bathhouse and think that this issue has nothing to do with you, think again: When policy makers go after legitimate community businesses that make them uncomfortable – where will they draw the line? Will they be comfortable with David’s Coffeehouse and the coffeehouses where gay men hook up? Will they be comfortable with gay personals in your local (or gay and lesbian) newspaper? Will they be comfortable with our community bars? Will a leather bar, where people engage in unconventional sex rituals, be a target for scrutiny over Moose McGillycuddys, where people in Izod shirts drink themselves into oblivion?

Sacrificing our community’s most involved, generous businesses – and using them to roadblock genuine HIV prevention and education efforts strikes us as a huge, monumental waste.

This is our warning to the community and anyone who wants to listen: We cannot stand by and let the city and county legislate nit-picking morals, even in the name of public health, into our society and our community. We will stand behind our community’s legitimate, generous and exemplary bathhouses – whether we choose to take part in the bathhouse scene or not. We will stand up for the rights of adults to engage in consensual sex, and for adult businesses to operate legitimate businesses, even when those businesses are of a sexual nature, and especially when those businesses contribute so generously and meaningfully to our community. We will watch our city and county politicians and make sure they stand behind us on these issues. Consider yourself warned.