Sep 14 2006
Reuters on Monday examined how some public bathhouses frequented by men who have sex with men in New York City have become "a place where a captive audience can be taught about sex safe," despite the common belief that the clubs are "havens for illicit drug use and the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections."
Twice a month volunteers from the Gay Men's Health Crisis visit the city's two 24-hour bathhouses -- East Side Club and the West Side Club -- to distribute condoms and pamphlets on safer sex, Mark Kornegay, a GMHC community health specialist, said.
Patrons also are given condoms when they sign in.
"At least bathhouses are public and a place where you can educate people about disease prevention," John Riley of ACT UP New York said, adding, "You can't get to them in other places," such as private sex parties and Internet chat rooms (Verrinder, Reuters, 9/11).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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