I can't help but laugh, man. This place is as crazy as it was when I left. Scratch that. It's even crazier now that I've returned.
Shhh... Don't tell anyone, mmmkay?
Posted on 07/16/2006 6:55:39 PM PDT by DBeers
CLEVELAND - City health officials want the owner of a new, upscale gay bathhouse to provide condoms, offer customers regular HIV testing and appoint employees to answer questions about preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
The Flex club, which is scheduled to open next month, will become part of a chain of six bathhouses extending from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Plans for the 50,000-square-foot complex inside a defunct Greyhound bus depot feature three pools, two saunas and a gym and include 110 cabana-like spa rooms equipped with cots and televisions, 18 hotel rooms and a restaurant.
City leaders say the club could help spark the economic revival of a desolate commercial block, but they also worry that the bathhouse could fuel a growth of HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
"I think it's going to be a big mess in the not-too-distant future," said William Tiedemann, AIDS director for the Cleveland Department of Public Health.
Last year, an 11-year-high 118 new HIV diagnoses were reported among Cleveland residents, according statistics gathered by the city health department. As of Dec. 31, 2,458 Cleveland residents had been reported as living with HIV or AIDS, a rate of about 514 per 100,000 residents, and about four times the state rate.
Two of every three Ohio cases of HIV/AIDS occur in men, and homosexual sex is believed to be the source of many infections.
Charles Fleck, founder and owner of the Flex club, said he's concerned about health and safety at the club. He said he wants to work with the health department to ensure that customers are protected.
"Look, I'm a gay man," he said. "I went through the entire AIDS saga, and I am still going through it."
City leaders want to review Fleck's policy of evicting members caught using drugs or soliciting sex. They also want Fleck to sign an agreement outlining other guidelines.
City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who learned about the project 18 months ago when an architect contacted the city zoning board, said he has few concerns. Cimperman said he asked about public health measures and was told that condoms and prevention messages would circulate throughout the club.
Public health officials and AIDS activists in Cleveland said they aren't opposed to bathhouses. Research has shown they are a valuable and convenient venue for promoting safer sex practices, and AIDS organizations acknowledge that the clubs are safer for gay men than cruising other areas, such as parks.
Flex will compete with a smaller gay bathhouse, Club Cleveland, located in the same area. Club Cleveland has always provided HIV testing and free condoms, said owner Ray Wolf.
When Flex opens, it will become the fifth bathhouse in Ohio. The Flex and Club chains both have branches in Columbus. A bathhouse in Toledo is independently operated.
Flex's other location are in New Orleans and Phoenix.
Indianapolis used to have(and my still) a 'swingers club' that was pretty much left alone. Everybody knew what was going on upstairs, but it was a private club open to members only and you had to be an adult to join so the city looked the other way.
This is too easy: Prediction--the hole thing will be a pain in the ass.
Prostitution is only possible in heterosexual situations, sorry.
(Down in the bathhouse) tight sweaty buns
(Down in the bathhouse) we'll be havin' some fun
(Down in the bathhouse) these guys fit like a glove
(Down in the bathhouse) we'll be making sick love
Down in the bathhouse (bath-house!)
You sir, have just hit on the fact that homosexuals are far more equal than heterosexuals. They can do as they please, spread disease, and not even be criticized in whispered tones.
I can't help but laugh, man. This place is as crazy as it was when I left. Scratch that. It's even crazier now that I've returned.
Shhh... Don't tell anyone, mmmkay?
...feature three pools, two saunas and a gym and include 110 cabana-like spa rooms equipped with cots and televisions...
I just have this bad vision of the three pools and two saunas having brown water in them with an oil film on top from KY jelly.
The reason the homosexuals get preferential treatment is because they have a disorder which compels them to undulge in perverted, irrational sexual interactions with each others who suffer the same condition.
Their disorder dominates their lives, so the choice may be to provide them with places to indulge their compulsions with each other in an environment away from normal people, or to ban those bathhouses, which would increase the number of homosexuals doing it in public areas.
Either way, they will do it.
You may have other ideas as to control the effects of the disorder.
Regarding the promotion of 'safe sex' in these establishments, my experience is that the deviants will do whatever they want, no matter how many condoms or safe sex messages are pushed into their hands. The condition is destructive, and the spreading of deseases is seen as a positive result of their actions for many of them.
I'm not being alarmist, extreme or dishonest in what I've said here. I have seen and experienced it. This is how many of them think. The authorities can lay down as many regulations as they like, but the homosexuals will do what they are driven to do. That is the nature of the disorder. It isn't moderated by logic or self-preservation. It's a sickness.
You live in Lakewood?
I don't have any first-hand experiences to relate, but I have read a fair amount on the subject and what you describe sounds pretty accurate. Some of the men who frequent these place readily admit they con't practice safe sex. Others have actually admitted they want to contract AIDS as some sort of act of solidity with the afflicted. I can't explain it other than to agree that it is a sickness. This is one very screwed up bunch of people.
But, but, it doesn't matter what queers do behind closed doors. Just ask any homophile, they pay their own way.
Excellent point. We certainly don't see billions spent on fighting tobacco-smoking related diseases. We all know altering the perverted behavior is key to improving public health. We tell smokers to stop smoking. Uh, can we tell queers to stop the queer behavior and you won't get AIDS, Gay Bowel Syndrome, and the other dozen or so related diseases.
A big part of me says, let em spread their HIV.
heh-heh. Well, we still celebrate their poetic return every March. C'mon down, get some mud on your shoes, have some pancakes at the elementary school. That's what we call a good time out here in the sticks.
Oh yeah. They weren't hard to spot, either.
Not anymore...It was shut down a year or two ago IIRC.
If you kept your lunch this long, take a gander at this bath-house expose:
www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=31580
In case of link inoperation, just go the www.thestranger.com and look up Christopher Frizzelle's "Bleak House"
BTW, I avoid Seattle like the plague.
BTDT.
Have fun.
L
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