Nine Los Angeles bathhouses and sex clubs have filed suit against Los Angeles County claiming that they are not “commercial sex venues,” and therfore do not need to “to obtain a county health license, pay an annual fee of more than $1,000, allow quarterly inspections and provide on-site testing and counseling for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases for at least 20 hours a week.”

These new rules for commercial sex venues (a “commercial sex venue” is defined as a business that “as one of its primary purposes allows, facilitates and/or provides facilities for its patrons or members to engage in any high-risk sexual contact while on the premises”) were inspired by the results of a 2003 county study which showed that bathhouse patrons are at a much greater risk of testing positive for HIV than other gay or bisexual men countywide are.

Los Angeles Times:

Whatever these self-described bathhouses and sex clubs are, their owners want you to know that they are definitely not the sort of “commercial sex venues” that the county is targeting for increased oversight.

We “are not commercial sex venues at all,” nine gay bathhouses and sex clubs said in a lawsuit filed March 3 against Los Angeles County.

“That’s a lie,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who has been pushing county health officials to step up oversight over such businesses. “What are people going to do? Play chess?”

Beginning this month, the county is requiring “commercial sex venues” to obtain a county health license, pay an annual fee of more than $1,000, allow quarterly inspections and provide on-site testing and counseling for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases for at least 20 hours a week.

The county defines a commercial sex venue as a business that “as one of its primary purposes allows, facilitates and/or provides facilities for its patrons or members to engage in any high-risk sexual contact while on the premises.”

But that definition doesn’t fit these nine bathhouses and sex clubs, the lawsuit contends, because they have “always sought to prevent high-risk sex.”

The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, asks a judge to void the regulations or exempt the nine bathhouses and sex clubs.

“We don’t meet the definition,” said Scott Campbell, president of Midtowne Spa in downtown L.A. and two other bathhouses in the county. “We have disclaimers letting [patrons] know that unsafe sex is not allowed, and we provide condoms.”