Earlier this month in New York, Democratic state Sen. Erik Bottcher, and Assemblymember Tony Simone introduced the Public Health Modernization Act, which would lift New York’s existing ban on adult saunas—and would require the state Department of Health to develop a licensing and oversight system to manage them instead.   

New York’s ban on sex in saunas dates back to 1985, when the city used the prohibition to target and shut down bathhouses during the height of the AIDS epidemic. But so much has changed since then: HIV infection rates have plummeted; our understanding of the virus and how to treat it have advanced; and medications like PrEP and PEP have radically transformed prevention. 
 

This is something the lawmakers acknowledge. As Bottcher told Gothamist:  “The landscape around HIV and AIDS science has changed. Treatment has changed. Prevention has changed. Our laws need to change, too.” 
 

Script managing editor Ziya Jones explains why this act could represent a public health win.