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.
DUH...
Ping.
If I didn't have a large amount of ready cash to spread around to deal with all the 'zoning issues' I'd be shut down in the blink of an eye.
But since this establishment is going to cater to homosexuals all that happens is a friendly visit from the Health Department for 'outreach'.
Astounding.
L
Bath House? Sounds more like a sodomy steam house to me.
Just what Cleveland needs. Something to replace all the companies the politicians have driven out of town. I can picture it now. Thousands of bathhouses will make it a tourists paradise.
The mayor will probably be down there cutting the ribbon for them. He'll cut it with a big... uh,...
All of my neighbors are going to be down at this place.
I actually didn't read any further than where it said that it was in the "now-defunct" Geyhound bus depot. Isn't that just perfect?
Someone tell me quick why Whore house are illegal and queer bathhouses arent. Now the fact that the city officials want the bath house proprieters to provide condoms should tell the most stupid liberal asshole alive that they know the purpose of these bath houses is for sexual relations. Why is it legal for queers to have a place to haul their ashes when a heterosexual man cannot be allowed to perform a perfectly natural sex act with a woman.?
Dont come up with the line that fruits are doing this without pay because I would bet some of them arent , and even if a place were open where women could provide the sex act free the City would close it down. Women cant even perform nude in most cities.While these characters are obviously nude since they call it a bath house. They have a chain of six of these across the country?? Let me try to open a chain of Massage parlors where women touch someones privates and see how long I would stay in business, Yet these characters dont have a problem?
I am seriously about to puke
Yep, noticed that did you? This has been a real thorny subject for me for the last twenty years or so. Reagan was the devil incarnate for not doing more to save people with AIDS, but if you asked homosexuals to refrain from public sex with numerous multiple partners per weekend, it was out of line.
It's a national scandle that there is even one public bath house in this nation that caters to homosexuals practicing group sex, that is still open at this time in our nation's history.
Course I never would have approved even without the AIDS epidemic. For the record, I don't approve of heterosexual clubs that promote sex between multiple partners either.
These are mostly endeavors that spread disease. That's not good for anyone.
It's a "club".
All you have to do is open up a hetero club. Then, if they shut you down, sue them for discrimination.
If you win, you will get no money since the city has none, but they can give you some empty factories or a bunch of vacant land. You could then sell that to the queer clubs.
Next cycle of HIV transmission at gate 1. With stops at
infectious diseases, cancer, kidney failure, brain disease
and finally death. Have a nice day, don't worry about who
will pay for your medical care. All Aboooooooaaaard.
I caught the bus out of that depot many years ago to get to and from college. It was an old art deco sort of relic even in the sixties. Dirty, down at the heel, with derelicts hanging around the cafeteria which served absolutely rubber jello. It is poetic that its new clientele will fit so well with the old regulars.
I caught the bus out of that depot many years ago to get to and from college. It was an old art deco sort of relic even in the sixties. Dirty, down at the heel, with derelicts hanging around the cafeteria which served absolutely rubber jello. It is poetic that its new clientele will fit so well with the old regulars.
That being said you are pretty much correct. This is a public health issue. The bath houses in San Fran were hot beds of disease when the AIDS outbreak started. Even though hundreds of people were dying they homosexual lobby demanded they stay open.
If this country were serious about stopping the spread of AIDS anyone infected with the disease would be quarantined post haste just as if they had Typhus or Yellow Fever.
Instead unless one is actively infecting others without their knowledge folks are free to walk the streets with a highly lethal communicable disease. That's just plain nuts.
L
You mean just like in that lib-uh-rhul's version of paradise on earth - Cuba?
L
As Aunt Ester said, "Sodom and Gomorrah".
My sentiments are pretty much the same as yours, regarding consenting adults. The problem is, people frequent these clubs and spouses or boy/girl-friends are then exposed to the communicable diseases that are spread in them. If this were limited to the adults, I still think it would be a shame, but kids enter into this. Pregnant women are infected and their infants are exposed.
The prices are very heavy for some of these activities. If we're going to take a frank view of the prices homosexuals are foisting off on society, as heterosexuals we need to be frank about our own contributions.
How long would McDonald's last if it sold burgers that gave a disease to customers at "a rate of about 514 per 100,000", or a roller rink where 514 customers per 100,000 were injured for life?
Yet, a bathhouse that will be the prime venue for the transmission of a deadly disease is pretty much given a pass.
Homosexuals don't have bathrooms at home? Or do they get dirty so frequently they need extra baths throughout the day?
I'm going to pick a nit here and ask "Who's we Kimosabe?"
I don't contribute one iota to this problem. I've been saying for years if we really want to stop it, we need to quarantine those who are infected and refuse to cease the behavior that spreads a 100% lethal disease.
I seriously doubt that you 'contribute' to the problem either my friend.
If people knew that if they caught this disease and continued with their stupid, risky, selfish behavior that they would lose their freedom they most likely wouldn't engage in it and the 'epidemic' would burn itself out.
Then we would be back to the good old days when all one had to worry about was a nasty case of the Clap.
L
Oh just catch some of my comments on other threads. You're opinion will come back down to earth. ;-)
Read a few of my posts and I'm sure your opinion of my grasp of common sense will come down a peg or two...or three...or four.
L
Yeah, but with all the queers coming in, did you have to mention "rubber" and "jello" in the same sentence?
No I don't and I'm sure you don't, but I do think it's reasoned to admit that some heterosexuals do spread some pretty rank diseases, up to and including AIDS. Is it to the degree that homosexuals do? No, there just isn't as much trauma involved in the acts in most instances.
I've never recommended quaranteening people, but I have had a very sympathetic view if it involved promiscuous people who were hell bent on infecting others, especially if that person hadn't a clue.
If monogomous homosexuals want to continue to have relations when both parties know what the risks are, I'm less inclined to quaranteen them.
I too think this disease would have basicly destroyed it's hosts and therefore itself if proper public health policies had been put in place and adhered to.
It's really a shame that they weren't.
Thanks for the comments.
No kidding.
You're quite welcome and I thank you for yours.
You take care now. Things are getting pretty squirrelly of late.
L
Yes they are. You take care as well.
The new clientele was there when you went there way back in the sixties. They were hanging around the toilets watching you pee. Maybe you just didnt notice them ,Fruits always hang around bus stations looking for a young kid to pervert.
...and to make sure employees "sign an agreement outlining other guidelines" -- don't forget that!
I shudder to think what those 'guidelines' might be.
L
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.
Pay me now or pay me later thinking? Maybe this is short term versus long term thinking?
In my opinion -this is just stupid thinking -to think that homosexual sex will positively contribute in any way to society is bizarre...
The city leaders are really just wondering whether the possible short-term pay off will justify the assured long-term damage that will follow pimping homosexual sex in their city...
Isn't maintaining a house of prostitution illegal in Ohio?
Back in the early 90's the government was footing the bill for one of my patient's HIV med's to the tune of about $21,000 dollars a year.
Perhaps, the economic revival will be in the form of all the money from the government to pay for medical treatment for the guys who acquire HIV/AIDs at the bath house.
I shutter to think about those poor folk hired to do janitorial and maintenance work at that place. I'll bet the turn over in those jobs is really, really high.
On the bright side though, I think when law breakers get sentenced to X number of hours doing Community Service, emptying trash cans and changing sheets/towels in this place might just fit the bill. It's one thing to do Community Service picking up litter on the highway, quite another to clean "private cabanas" in a gay bath house.
That's just plain mean.
Perhaps that's why I like it so very much. L
2 words "private club". In some parts of the south where they have dry counties that is how they get around liquor laws. A 'massage parlor' is a place of business where the only business is sex and people get paid for it, i.e prostitution. At the bath house you pay to be a member like a gym and then what you do behind closed doors is given a nice wink and a nod because, afterall we all have to be tolerant and accepting you know.
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.
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