The San Diego City Council is scheduled Tuesday to consider repealing an ordinance related to bathhouses that was passed at the height of the HIV/AIDS panic.
Council President Joe LaCava's office brought the repeal forward after a staffer discovered the ordinance by accident while searching the municipal code. The ordinance begins by stating its intent is to strictly regulate bathhouses in an effort to stop gay and bisexual men from having sex and spreading HIV.
LaCava said the ordinance, which was passed in 1988 and amended in 1991, is not relied upon by police or code enforcement officers for any regulatory authority.
"The old language reflects homophobic and misguided assumptions of the gay community that some people held decades ago," LaCava said. "Removing this language updates the municipal code to reflect our values and our respect for all people of San Diego."
The repeal vote comes as other cities are revisiting laws that were passed in the early years of the HIV pandemic. San Francisco repealed its bathhouse ordinance in 2024. Minneapolis repealed its ban on bathhouses in June, while a similar effort is currently underway in New York City.
Patrick Loose, who oversees the HIV, STD and Hepatitis Branch of San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency, said he supports the ordinance's repeal. He said by the time the ordinance was adopted, gay and bisexual men had already begun changing their behavior to protect themselves and each other.
"They had reduced the number of sexual partners, they had reduced or eliminated anonymous sexual encounters, they were adopting condoms to reduce the likelihood of transmission," Loose said. "This ordinance probably wasn't helpful in stopping HIV."
What was helpful, Loose added, were grassroots initiatives that educated gay and bi men on safer sex practices without judgment.
Stigma continues to be a barrier to preventing the spread of HIV, said Gus Hernandez, spokesperson for the San Diego LGBT Community Center, which offers free HIV testing and support services.
"What we've seen here at the Center is when folks feel stigmatized, they are reluctant to find out even if they have HIV," Hernandez said. "We provide affirming services here in a judgment-free environment by folks who look and talk and act like our folks who are being tested so that they feel comfortable."
Loose said the most effective HIV prevention tools are medications that can make the virus untransmissible through sex. The biggest barriers to getting those medications to the people who need them, he said, are poverty and lack of access to health care.
"The factor of poverty is a huge, huge impediment," Loose said. "When people prioritize their needs, preventing HIV might not make it onto the top 10 list if they're worried about housing stability and transportation and food."
