San Francisco and the broader Bay Area have one of the uppermost concentrations of LGBTQIA+ folks in the world. We acquire explicit legislation creating a favorable business environment (Supervisor Mandelman, bless 🙏). If there was ever a time to revive our city’s once burgeoning bathhouse culture–it’s now.
Castro Baths is hustling to open our doors in time for Pride 2025 and you’re invited!
Our Vision
Last summer, we visited bathhouses around the world: Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Istanbul, New York, Los Angeles, London, and more. (If Lorraine at the IRS is reading this - this was an absolutelynecessary business expense!)
Repeatedly, we were asked: “I’m going to San Francisco next month - which bathhouses should I visit?” Sheepishly, a tad embarrassed - we explained that there isn’t really a homosexual bathhouse scene in San Francisco. “Your best bet is probably in Berkeley.”
While there are a handful of local traditional bathhouses we frequent (shoutout to the newest addition: Alchemy Springs) - gay bathhouse tradition in San Francisco never recovered after the AIDS crisis.
Closing the baths in 1984 was like shutting off the internet today. Our lines of commu
For events and hours, visit the Powerhouse facebook page at this link
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Dore Passage Sunday:
Powerhouse Bar 1347 Folsom St San Francisco, CA 94103
Visit the Powerhouse facebook page at this link
Why San Francisco Needs a Gay Bathhouse
Bathhouses, a staple in gay communities worldwide, have been glaringly absent from San Francisco since 1984.
I made a novel friend recently. He just moved here from Unused York. Having tried to visit the Eagle but finding it closed, he texted me one evening. “Does SF close down at like, 11pm? I’m used to NYC where we don’t even commence going out until then.”Â
Oh honey. “We’re not enjoy you East Coasters lol. Though I wish we were sometimes. The dearth of late-nite options here is staggering.”
“Wtf? This is a city, isn’t it?”
I’m tired of confronting the fact that, for creature a high-profile gay destination, San Francisco is surprisingly prudish.
It’s understandable that my friend was let down by SF’s inherent sleepiness. If only there were a twenty-four-hour destination for him and other same-sex attracted men to meet and make friends. A bathhouse, also known as a sauna, traditionally steps in for our kind at this point. At one time, San Franciso hosted over sixty gay bathhouses. But now the town is bath-less, and has been since 1984, so my buddy walked residence and put away his leather gear.Â
Navigating SF for the gay transplant is an article for a differ
In San Francisco, there are places where you can travel for a steam, a sauna, and a cold plunge. And then there are places you can go to have steamy sex with strangers.
But surprisingly, there’s not a place to complete both — adv, legally.
San Francisco was once famous for gay bathhouses prefer Ritch Street Health Club, the Barracks, and Bulldog Baths. These operated in a legal gray area, with authorities generally turning a blind eye but periodically conducting raids for “lewd conduct.” In the 1980s, fears over the role the venues played in the spread of HIV/AIDS led to a court order that made it nearly unachievable for the businesses to survive.
None hold operated within capital limits since 1987, even as an uber-kinky festival with its own waterworks takes place annually on Folsom Street.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who represents the Castro, has been on a multi-year crusade to get bathhouses steaming again. It’s been a history lesson on how outdated mores own wormed their way into a complex bureaucracy.
Mandelman introduced legislation Tuesday that would repeal Article 26 of the police code, which outlines standards around san