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Paper short abstract:

Swedish gay saunas existed from the early 1970s up until the mid-1980s and functioned as one of the first semi-public safety zones for men who desired other men in Sweden. This paper examines their relation to secrecy and anonymity on the one hand and visibility and sociability on the other hand.

Paper long abstract:

Homosexual acts were made legal in Sweden in 1944, yet the following decade was in many ways still characterized by institutional homophobia coming from all corners of the political spectrum. From left to right there were concerns that the legalization would lead to homosexuality moving from the shadows of society and into public space, having certain societal repercussions. A general fear of indecency and misleading impressionable youth were among the main fears. During this time, men would meet in parks, at railway stations, bathhouses, public urinals, and cinemas for sex, as they had been doing for centuries already. The meetings would for the most part be hasty and anonymous and always with the risk of being exposed. After legalization, exposure still meant a risk of being physically attacked or blackmailed, sometimes both. The situation for men cruising other men remained somewhat the same up until the 1970s when the first gay sauna opened in Stockholm in 1971. This would be the first of nine saunas that existed in Sweden up until the mid-1980s. Partly modeled after other European and North American gay saunas and gay bathhouses it became one of the first semi-public safety zones for men looking to have sex with other men in Sweden. Here the guests would, after paying an entrance fee, be able to be sexual and affectionate with each other in an indoor facility with less risk of being attacked or harassed, enabling new social patterns of interaction to develop.