Gay bathhouses in michigan

The former site of TNT Health Club, one of Detroit's first gay health clubs, is in foreclosure and heading to auction.

The former health club at 13333 W. Eight Mile is now listed under a Jim Short Construction Inc. on the Wayne County Treasurer's foreclosure list. Their dues in back taxes are $36,167.09, and the auction on the property will be taking place this fall.

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TNT Health Club lock down in summer 2018 and was open longer than another gay bathhouse in the city. Some of the amenities offered at TNT while it was still in business were that of a heated swimming pool, a whirlpool, a steam room, Finnish sauna, weight room, and feature lounges.

Gay bathhouses were created out of a need for exclusively gay spaces, especially somewhere secret from outside scrutiny and bigotry. After the AIDS crisis in the 80s, TNT was apparently the last one standing out of all the other establishments in the area. 

Between The Lines has learned that the TNT Health Club, Detroit's longest running gay bathhouse, has recently shuttered its doors. Located at 13333 Eight Mile Road, TNT first opened in 1979 in the spot of a former Jewish schvitz bath.
At that time there were four other gay male bathhouses – The Club Baths, the Prudential Health Club, the Akron Health Club and the Park Avenue Baths – unwrap in the city.
"For many gay and bisexual person men, the baths own been a vital place of exploration and sexual freedom back to the early 20th century," said historian Tim Retzloff, who teaches at Michigan Express University.
According to Retzloff, gay bathhouses had their origins in public bathhouses and saunas serving immigrant populations, where some men would sneak homosexual activity.
"In the late 1960s and early 1970s owners in Detroit and elsewhere in the U.S. began to create baths as spaces specifically targeted to a gay clientele, providing social and erotic venues for meeting largely veiled from the outside world," Retzloff said. "Their investments paid off handsomely."
By the mid-80s, as the AIDS crisis exploded, all the other bathhouses in Detroit had folded and TNT was left as the sole