This letter appeared on its Facebook page
Bodyline Sydney Management and staff would like thank our patrons and the community support for the last 30 years.
Due to COVID, ongoing restrictions and uncertainty around the potential for the virus to spread so easily within the community. For the safety of our staff and patrons, we have made the difficult, but what we think is the responsible decision, to close until further notice.
Thank you all, stay safe and we hope to see you all at a later stage.
History of this bathhouse
Bodyline was the first lawfully established gay bathhouse in Sydney
Bodyline was established in 1991, at a time when no legal gay sex venues were owned by gay men.
Bodyline was denied development approval by the South Sydney Council & was taken to the Land & Environment Court of NSW in which one of the arguments used to keep them from opening was the old Disorderly House Act. This Act had been used for a number of years to close down brothels in NSW.
After all the facts were presented, Justice Stein delivered his judgement & Bodyline was granted consent of the Court to legally operate. Bodyline was the first lawfully established ‘Sex on Premises’ venue in NSW.
GAY CLUB EXEMPTION
A homosexual sex club will be allowed to refuse entry to women & heterosexual men, under what is thought to be the first exemption of its type granted by the Attorney-General, Mr Shaw.
A spokeswoman for the Anti-Discrimination Board that said in advising the Attorney-General, it had taken into account the importance of a place where homosexual men felt safe ‘given the level of violence against homosexual males in the community’.
Bodyline Spa & Sauna has been a licensed sex-on-premises venue since 1991. The club also had reasonable procedures in place to ensure safe sex, she said.
– Sydney Morning Herald, 18th May 1998 by Leonie Lamont
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