Twelve dollars may be a bit pricey for stale pretzels, but it’s a small price to pay for anonymity. “Many are having bareback sex, but some are only masturbating or receiving oral sex,” he says. “The snacks are placed in large communal bowls and grabbed by hands that have been up asses.” The club’s main activity required little overhead. “No one pays $12 to eat stale pretzels and off-label lemon lime soda,” the visitor says. As the city’s above-board clubs struggled to secure properties and licenses in new neighborhoods, Men’s Parties reaped the benefits of their closures, under the table, courting business with ads that read: “The spirit of Southeast lives on.” That spirit included a little bit more than light snacking. The club received plenty of donations in recent years, thanks to the shuttering of gay clubs displaced by Nationals Park. All you had to do was show up at 1618 14th St. And we’ll leave it at that.”Ĭlub memberships were easy to come by. He does take donations for chips, dips, and soda. In a Logan Circle ANC meeting addressing the death, 3rd District police Lieutenant Vanessa Moore said that the head of the club “does not take money per se. In an interview with NBC 4, self-identified “volunteer” Skip Miller described the activities of the club: “We have videos. A message left on the advertised phone number now informs callers, “We are temporarily closed until further notice.”Ī typical advertisement in the Washington Blade.įor years, the club had thrived under a thin cover: organized snacking. The front gate, typically left ajar to signal that the party is on, had been locked.
But within a week of the incident, the club had shuttered under the weight of exposure. 9, a regular half-page ad ran in the back pages of the Blade, inviting readers to come “socialize.” The same issue contained a news item on the man’s death. The evening following the death, the club had reopened for business. “To me, this was always a recipe for disaster.”Īt first, Men’s Parties attempted to weather the unwelcome scrutiny of police, city officials, and neighbors. According to the frequent visitor to the club, “The most dangerous condition there was the lack of condoms.…There are no bowls of condoms upstairs or downstairs, where most of the sex takes place,” he says. Please call for more information.”īut the most heated safety concerns surrounding the Men’s Parties lie outside the scope of city regulation. In November of that year, five months following the fire, ads for the parties read: “We are expecting to move soon. According to the Blade, the emergency response revealed an establishment with “exit signs, a reception desk, a row of gym lockers, and signs stating the hours the place was open”-but no certificate of occupancy or business licenses. In 2005, a candle ignited a mattress in the building’s upper floor, causing $5,000 in damages and bringing fire officials inside the club.
Unfortunately for Men’s Parties, police and city officials operate on a more traditional definition of “safety.” The man’s death marks the second major incident at the club to draw the scrutiny of the police, city officials, and neighbors. However, the place was still very dark and the steps were very steep.” “I think your eyes, under normal circumstances, could adjust. “The steps leading down to the basement floor were very, very dark,” he says. “People come there, do their business, and leave.” The club reinforced the anonymity with a cover of darkness. No one asks for phone numbers, and no one ever really leaves with someone else,” he says. “There is very little to none, in terms of conversation,” says one visitor to the club, who says he has attended Men’s Parties over a dozen times in the past six years. At 1618 14th St., “safe” means ensuring anonymous sex for a group of gay men sporting wedding rings, sensitive careers, or shame.įor a “men’s social club,” the regularly scheduled activities included little socializing. It doesn’t even mean encouraging members to engage in protected sex. How does a club meant to provide a “safe place” end up hosting a member’s death? By working off a creative definition of “safe.”Īt Men’s Parties, safety doesn’t mean ensuring that the apartment’s stairs, surfaces, and exposed metal pipes provide a secure sexual landscape for party attendees. The man’s injury was sustained during the regular activities of the club, which include nightly gay sex events called “Men’s Parties,” as well as meetings of the “Jack Off Enthusiasts of Washington and Baltimore.” The accident has drawn public scrutiny over the private meetings, as well as a defense: Following the death, the club’s organizer told police that his establishment provides “a safe place for gay men to have consensual sex.”