Number and Distribution of Gay Bathhouses in the United States and Canada

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3606258
AutoresWilliam J Woods (0000-0002-7036-4155, University of California, San Francisco), Daniel Tracy, Daniel G Tracy (0000-0002-0106-6293, University of California, San Francisco), Diane Binson (University of California, San Francisco)
Año2003
Volumen44
Número3-4
Páginas55-70
Fecha de publicación2003-08-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Homosexuality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0091-8369 • E-ISSN: 1540-3602
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1300/j082v44n03_04
PMID12962178
OpenAlexW1985223464
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas19

Although gay bathhouses have been the subject of debate and some public health policy for decades, the relative number and geographic distribution of these establishments has not been described. As a result, it is easy to miss or ignore them in making public policy in response to discase prevention. No straightforward methodology for such a description is available, so we used a series of gay travel books, first published in 1965 by the Damron Company, to estimate this distribution in the United States and Canada. Each of the annual guides published from 1968 to 1999 were reviewed for listings of bathhouses and sex clubs. The results suggest that bathhouses and other similar establishments exist in most states and provinces and in most large and many moderate-sized cities. Furthermore, the largest numbers of listings for bathhouses were in the same six cities across the decades, three in the U.S. and three in Canada. The greatest change in the number of listings was seen in the three U.S. cities where a public policy of closure was attempted. Nevertheless, the numbers of venues in these three cities have been increasing again since the early 1990s, although nothing near the numbers of listings in the late 1970s and early 1980s

Distribution (mathematics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Library science · Public policy · Sociology · Subject (documents · Homelessness and Social Issues · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy