Why are Edinburgh's seamier saunas under attack?
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Version 0 of 1. Edinburgh has always been a city of stark contrasts and contradictions: Old Town and New; crescent and scheme; tourists and locals, town and gown. Back in the mid-1980s, the extremes were being pulled so wide you could almost feel the city rip beneath you. On one side was a prosperous yuppie dream of high culture, class and hedonism; while out towards the bypass, sprawling housing schemes were rotting with the gangrene of mass unemployment, poverty and drugs. One of the few levellers between the two worlds was the HIV virus, which crept with deadly persistence between the blood of intravenous drug users; gay men, both rich and poor; and sex workers, both male and female. Edinburgh city council's response to the Aids crisis at the time included adopting a policy of pragmatism towards sex work and the gay scene. The city finally admitted that sporadic attempts to legally quash its notorious sex industry and libertine subcultures had been failing dismally for hundreds of years. Instead it adopted a policy of containment and control, within which safer sex and health promotion efforts could be focused and risks, to an extent, could be managed. Saunas began to be licensed as entertainment venues and there was a tacit agreement between council, police and proprietors that nobody would inquire too closely about what kind of entertaining was going on. For decades the change was considered uncontroversial and the effects generally successful. Then over the past couple of years, the mood slowly began to change against tolerance. The attempt by Rhoda Grant MSP to criminalise the purchase of sex in Scotland, while ultimately unsuccessful, did fertilise a high-profile public debate, which at times, according to groups representing sex workers, cynically conflated all sex work with trafficking, exploitation, violence and slavery. More significantly, the newly merged national police force saw control of law enforcement in the capital effectively transferred to Strathclyde, where zero tolerance had long been the dominant ideology. Promises to respect local policing traditions, in this respect at least, began to look hollow when in June of this year, a mere two months after Police Scotland became operational, raids on 18 venues saw arrests of alleged sex workers and proprietors. Some of the women arrested, who were not in breach of any laws, claim to have been strip-searched, held without food or water for up to seven hours and had their money and phones confiscated. Of course sexual acts are not criminal offences, whether or not money is involved. The police raids, under the auspices of looking for drugs and victims of trafficking, showed only that saunas were not always operating within the strict terms of their license agreements, something pretty much everyone had always known. Edinburgh City Council and Police Scotland now appear locked in a power struggle. On Wednesday night the licensing committee considered the renewed terms of 13 saunas. Some are known as places where female "masseurs" will entertain clients, others as places where gay men can entertain each other, without money changing hands. In the days leading up to the hearing, local press ran salacious, almost slavering accounts of what police had found upon raiding saunas. There was outrage when Police Scotland wrote to the committee requesting a list of conditions be attached to the new licenses, including that "No items of a sexual nature will be permitted on the premises." In practice this could have meant proprietors risked losing their licenses if condoms were found on the premises. The sheer idiocy of this proposal, which flew in the face of all public health guidelines from the World Health Organisation downwards, gave the lie to the notion that police are motivated by the welfare of vulnerable sex workers. In the end, the licensing committee refused to implement the condition on items of a sexual nature. They renewed the licenses of seven saunas and refused six more. It is hard to see what has been achieved. The sex industry continues; dozens of workers have been deprived of a relatively safe and secure venue to meet clients, and the people of Scotland are no longer sure whether civil policy is under the control of elected local councillors or at the whim of police. No one seems sure whether the current campaign against Edinburgh's sauna scene is some kind of moral crusade, a rather rigid and priggish interpretation of the rule of law or, as suggested by Margo MacDonald MSP, an effort by newly appointed chief constable Sir Stephen House to "make a name for himself". There may well be elements of all of them at play. There are honest debates to be had, in Edinburgh, as in every city of the UK, as to how best to manage, regulate or prosecute different aspects of sex work when the legal frameworks are so riddled with contradiction and so open to interpretation. It is fair to acknowledge that. It is not fair to play politics with the lives of gay men and sex workers. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |