There is something great about being naked in a gay space. Let go of your needless ageism and try something new. Many of the bathhouses I’ve been to are filled with older men, but this fact neither diminishes the fun to be had in them or takes away from their experience. I have heard some younger gay men - guys closer to my age - say they would never set foot in a bathhouse “because they are filled with old guys.” Let’s face a fact: This is often true. For them, bathhouses were a necessity - spaces frequented out of need and desire. The closet drew many men to bathhouses where they could cruise freely before returning home to their wives. Yes, AIDS was a devastating hit, one that made us fear the sexual spaces we used to roam. Today, New York is filled with cruising grounds, but its number of bathhouses has noticeably dwindled.
Everard was open for almost 100 years and was visited by such gay luminaries as Gore Vidal and Truman Capote. The Everard Baths in New York City was the most written-about bathhouse in history until it closed in 1986 at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Big cities like Los Angeles and New York have bathhouses that, depending on the night, may have better crowds than the national chains - North Hollywood Spa, Tampa Men’s Club, Denver Swim Club. If these are not options in your city, plan a trip. If you are a kink pig looking for slings over saunas, find your nearest Slammer. Go to Steamworks in Chicago or Berkeley, Club Dallas, or any of the Flex spas across the country. Happy hunting!īefore anyone tries to convince you that bathhouses are no fun - that they are filled with creepy onlookers and tweaked-out drug addicts - go to one. Wherever you choose, you are engaging in an art that gay and bi men have been perfecting for decades.Ĭheck out these 24 classic cruising zones, some of which yielded better results in years past and many that are still used today. The following hookup may happen in your apartment, in a public restroom, or in the alley out back. Now all you have to do is work up the courage to talk to him, give him your number, or nod to the exit. If you make eye contact with him and discover (wordlessly and without complete certainty) that you are both interested, then voila! You’ve cruised. In our minds, we lift his shirt the rest of the way and tug on the brim of his trousers with our teeth. We do it on the subway and in the office and anywhere a handsome gentleman might lift his shirt to wipe sweat off his forehead. This is a fair definition, but some guys would define cruising more loosely: a basic sex hunt, not something you specifically set out to do but rather something you are always doing. Wikipedia defines “cruising” as “walking or driving about a locality in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety.”