State health regulations adopted in 1985 outlawed businesses that made facilities available for sex, and New York City used them to shut its gay bathhouses. Mayor Ed Koch then sent city health inspectors, some of them undercover, to enforce them. “There’s not a clearly defined use group for this kind of facility,” he told Gay City News. New HIV diagnoses in New York City have fallen by more than 70 per cent since 2001, with 1,791 recorded in 2024, according to Gothamist.com. “Evidence-based practices informed by the last 30 years of public health research make it clear we need to repeal the ban.”