A vote to approve the CSV license fee – the first step in the implementation process – originally was scheduled for December, but now has been postponed until January. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky first submitted his motion calling for the regulation of the county's CSVs on Feb. 3, 2004, which was backed by AHF and other HIV prevention advocates. In November, regulations were drafted but were not officially submitted to the board for approval and enactment into law.
AHF President Michael Weinstein thanked the board for their support in calling for county regulations, but said the county’s Department of Health Services (DHS) and County Counsel must take further action.
"We are angry that it is taking the DHS and County Counsel so long to implement what are really pretty basic public health regulations for the county's 11 or so clubs,” Weinstein said.
The delay in considering new regulations has spanned four years, following the county’s "Bathhouse Study" conducted in 2001-2002 at two Los Angeles bathhouses. The study showed an HIV rate of more than 11 percent among men who have sex with men.
The study was conducted from May 2001-December 2002, tested 916 men who had gay sex at two Los Angeles bathhouses and found that 102 – or 11 percent – were HIV positive, compared with about six percent of similar men tested at public clinics and community-based agencies.
“This most recent delay is only the latest in a pattern of bureaucratic foot-dragging by DHS on this issue,” Weinstein said. “Sadly, as the county's four-year delay drags on, infections continue to rise."
AHF officials said even after the regulations are approved, bathhouse and sex club owners will have a six-month window for compliance.
“These commercial sex venues could be an important place for HIV prevention providers to offer testing and outreach services to a high-risk population in order to try and break the chain of infection here in Los Angeles," AHF Prevention and Testing Programs Director Karen Mall said. "Every day, every week that goes by without implementation of these important public health regulations represent countless missed opportunities in prevention, and we urge county health officials to fast track the rollout of these regulations."
