Last month saw the permanent closure of two landmark Bay Area gay sex clubs. With even closer quarters and higher contact than most nightlife venues, sex clubs seem uniquely vulnerable in the face of a viral pandemic. But the long history of harm reduction and safer-sex modifications these clubs displayed in the AIDS crisis also makes them uniquely poised to reopen safely as COVID restrictions ease. The city had already banned bathhouses — gay sex clubs with private rooms and locked doors — eight years prior, in an effort to curb the spread of HIV. Open-format gay sex clubs were still allowed, with the goal of monitoring attendees to ensure they practiced safe sex. Back then, Rowe said, Eros' founders "were always trying to look at what the science was, and how to expand that into a semi-public play space like this.