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Committee delays DPH standard deadline and forwards ordinance to update health rules for adult venues
Summary
The committee accepted an amendment to push the deadline for new minimum health and safety standards for commercial adult venues to Jan. 1, 2021, and forwarded the ordinance to the full Board. Sponsor emphasized the measure is intended to modernize AIDS-era rules and help venues participate in economic recovery when safe; public commenters from the AIDS Foundation supported the change.
On July 9 the Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee voted to accept an amendment and forward to the Board an ordinance directing the Department of Public Health to adopt minimum health and safety standards for commercial adult venues while prohibiting standards that require monitoring of patrons’ private activities or mandate locked private rooms.
Chair Rafael Mandelmann framed the ordinance as updating regulations originating in the 1970s–80s that required patron monitoring and banned private rooms, arguing those rules no longer have a public-health rationale given advances such as PrEP and declines in new HIV diagnoses. Mandelmann emphasized the ordinance would not permit reopening adult venues while COVID-19 reopening rules remain in effect and said the measure aims to make venues part of economic recovery when it is safe.
To avoid interfering with the Department of Public Health’s pandemic response, the committee accepted an amendment shifting the deadline for DPH to adopt minimum standards from July 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021. Mandelmann thanked DPH staff (including Director Brent Colfax and policy staff Israel Nieves Rivera) and stakeholders such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for consultations.
Two callers voiced support during public comment. Paul Aguilar of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s HIV Advocacy Network said the policy should be based on science rather than stigma and urged committee approval; Rayce Bannen, an LGBTQ organizer, said privacy in venues can improve public-health outreach and dignity for patrons. The committee adopted the amendment and forwarded the ordinance with a positive recommendation by a 3-0 vote.
The measure will proceed to the full Board of Supervisors for further consideration.
