A sex club in Wollongong was forced to close after it was outed in the local press. When it comes to sex venues, how important is discretion? Adam Bub reports.

When Allan Denis received council approval to open a sex-on-premises establishment in the site of an old church in Wollongong, sparks were bound to fly.

Following in the footsteps of Denis’ successful Sydney venue Aarows, the Men’s Social Club offered a safe and discreet environment for its clientele of gays, bisexuals, swingers and straight-identifying married men. That is, until recently.

In February, local newspaper Illawarra Mercury covered the community reaction to the approval. With the story, they published a photograph of the premises, which Denis believes compromised the discretion of his business for patrons.

“You take that away, you ruin the club – that’s exactly what they did,” Denis told SX. The day after the article’s publication, the patronage dropped from 40 to 2, and the club received hundreds of homophobic phone threats. The Men’s Social Club has since ceased operating.

When asked about the backlash of the article, the editor of the Illawarra Mercury, Stuart Howie, told SX that the newspaper was just reporting on a public matter.

The incident calls into question the notion of ‘discretion’ as a fundamental principle of sex venue practices. Sex-on-premises venues operate as public enterprises that sell a private product. Unlike the hollow promises of sex in chocolate advertisements, sex venues sell the real thing in a consensual environment. Such venues include saunas, bathhouses and sex clubs.

This promise of a non-discriminatory and safe environment is a drawcard for sex club patrons, as, like most people, they may not want their sexual practices known outside of the club. “Discreet’s not just a word, it’s a way of life,” said Denis.

ACON’s Southern Region Manager Shannon Wright told SX that “discretion and confidentiality are vital to patrons of sex-on-premises venues and even more so in regional areas as homosexuality is still stigmatised and fear of homophobic violence is high. 

Gay men and other men who engage in this type of sex need a place to feel safe.” Wright adds that providing safe environments for sex reduces the risk of homophobic violence at beats and can help minimise the likelihood of unsafe sexual practices.

Perhaps the real issue here is community attitudes. On Oxford Street, sex venues are accepted as part of the cosmopolitan landscape. In many suburbs, sex venues keep a low profile. In regional cities, the operation of sex venues faces a different dynamic.

Church members feared that Denis’ club might impact negatively on the area’s youth, reported the Illawarra Mercury. Other residents expressed concerns about parking congestion, crime, prostitution and rape. The residents’ concerns about crime only manifested in their own community members’ homophobic threats.

Penny Crofts, senior Law lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, wrote in a 2006 report that people’s disgust at brothels is triggered by concepts of loveless sex, ‘immorality’ and the threat to children.

Like brothels, sex-on-premises venues can be subject to mistrust because of popular myths that perpetuate prejudice. Ultimately, discretion can only come about when a community is ready for it.

As a counter point, ACON’s Illawarra Branch will establish the Safe Place Project in Wollongong and Shellharbour later this year, alongside their current beats outreach project.

According to Wright: “Both initiatives, along with our existing programs, will target homophobia through better education of the GLBT and straight communities, greater community involvement and action around reporting incidents”.