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  Why are bathhouses allowed to operate?

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  You raise a good point, but you're overlooking the fact that closing bathhouses wouldn't make ANY dent in the spread of STDs.  That's a fact you can't deny.  The people who engage in anonymous unsafe sex in bathhouses do so in their own homes, other people's homes...hotel rooms, at sex parties, at drug fests, in bathrooms and in alleys and woods.  They just do.

  SO, what you're proposing is that government should involve itself in shutting down a business in order to accomplish...what, exactly?  Again, it wouldn't dent STD transmission, so there's no benefit in terms of public policy.  Without that justification, your rationale for opposition is reduced to simply the fact that "these businesses are unsavory".  They are.  (And their owners are probably not paragons of virtue, either.  They're likely to be about as civic-minded as the billionaires who sell cigarettes.)

  But are we always wise when we try to shutter businesses that are unsavory?  Prostitution and gambling are unsavory.  Coca leaf and poppy sap products are unsavory.  Alcoholism is unsavory and most of the public places one finds alcoholics are unsavory.  I'd argue tobacco is unsavory.  I'd even entertain the idea that adding cane, beet, and corn sugar to everything in order to sell more could be unsavory.  (For that matter, there would be those who'd argue gas stations are unsavory!)  We should consider the cost and success of the things we've tried in the past on ALL of these unsavory things, before we go chasing after bathhouses.

  And let's not forget that, once we agree on how to act against unsavory businesses, that there will inevitably be those who insist that OTHER businesses are "unsavory" too, because they don't like the seller, the customers, or the product.  A restaurant that stays open late, or that sells pungent food, or that attracts immigrants, or youths, or people of a different faith than its neighbors...that sort of thing.  Instantly, there's a line-drawing problem, you see?

  Bathhouses and drinking establishments catering to LGBT people are actually the least of our concerns, and I don't see any VALID rationale to chase after any such things.  There are broader concerns.

  9 Answers5 months ago