(a) In the early 1980s, there were many business establishments in the City where men met other men for sex. These businesses included bookstores with video booths, movie theaters, and bath houses.
(b) In 1984, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the City filed a lawsuit against the operators of several such businesses, citing them as a public health nuisance. The court concluded that these businesses presented a public health risk, and issued an order allowing the businesses to remain open on the condition that they employ monitors to prevent unsafe sex from occurring, and provide education to the patrons. To facilitate the monitoring of the venues, the court further ordered that the doors to individual video cubicles, booths, or rooms be modified by removing the bottom 24-39 inches of such doors. Although the bathhouses could have legally remained open under the rules established by the court, most of them closed. In 1989, the City dismissed the lawsuit against the majority of defendants, and the court order requiring the use of monitors and modified doors was vacated as to those defendants.
(c) In 1997, the Department of Public Health adopted minimum standards governing the operation of commercial sex clubs and parties. These minimum standards were intended to make commercial sex clubs and parties safe, and were developed in consultation with the Coalition for Healthy Sex. The minimum standards that were developed in 1997, much like the court order that preceded them, required that all areas of commercial sex clubs and parties be monitored on a regular basis by staff, and prohibited commercial sex clubs and parties from having booths, cubicles, or rooms to which patrons have access that may be locked. The minimum standards that are in effect as of February 2020 include the same restrictions.
(d) Advances in biomedical prevention strategies have provided tools to reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission and acquisition and reduce the adverse health impacts of HIV. These tools include the availability of PrEP (preexposure prophylaxis) to prevent HIV infection, rapid access to antiretroviral therapy for people newly diagnosed with HIV, and successful efforts to increase viral suppression among people living with HIV in San Francisco through strategies and programs that increase retention in care and treatment. According to the Department, in 2018 the number of new AIDS diagnoses in San Francisco dropped to 197, marking a 58% decrease as compared to the number of new AIDS diagnoses in 2011.
(e) There is no evidence showing that the monitoring of patrons at commercial venues that allow people to engage in sexual activity results in safer sex. Indeed, some researchers have concluded that monitoring has little or no effect on high-risk behaviors.
(f) A number of businesses in the City cater to consenting adults who wish to meet and engage in sexual activities on the premises of the business, or to watch other patrons doing so, under circumstances that do not involve the violation of any law regulating sexual conduct. These businesses—adult sex venues—can be an important place for preventing the transmission of communicable diseases by educating patrons about ways to prevent the transmission of disease, and by establishing community norms that promote safe sex. When properly operated, adult sex venues assist, rather than impede, the City’s efforts to control the transmission of HIV, as well as other sexually transmitted diseases.
(g) If not properly operated, however, adult sex venues pose a risk of substantial harm to the public health. To prevent the spread of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, it is imperative that the operators and staff of adult sex venues understand the means by which diseases are transmitted and take reasonable steps to prevent or stop patrons from engaging in activities that can spread disease.
(h) Nothing in this Article 47 is intended in any way to condone conduct that violates any law, including California Penal Code Section 647(b), or to condone nonconsensual sexual activity.
(Added by Ord. 127-20, File No. 200141, App. 7/31/2020, Eff. 8/31/2020)