Transphobia at Archimedes Banya

It’s inauguration day, January 20th, 2025. I know it’s going to be bad. I’ve been preparing for how much this new administration was going to do to strip away my rights since election night. I’ve deleted every social media and news app off my phone to avoid getting exposed to coverage of the election. It’s time to focus on taking care of myself and staying alive. It’s time to be offline. So where do I go? I go to a safe space, Archimedes Banya.

Archimedes Banya has meant a lot to me. I have been a customer as long as I’ve lived in San Francisco. It is the only coed bathing / sauna that allows nudity in San Francisco, and I’ve enjoyed the casual culture of conversation, food, and relaxation there. My husband and I love it because it was the one spot we could attend together. As a T4T couple, we’ve been at the Banya at all stages of our lives together. Pre-transition, while identifying as non-binary, and now as more or less binary trans people. It was a safe (if pricey) place to be together, to go with friends, and to have an afternoon or evening to be in our bodies.

On election day, it had been a while since we last were at the Banya. Rhett had recovered from top surgery, and I’ve progressed a lot in my transition since the last time I went. When we first arrived, we learned that it was a children’s day, so we went for a walk and came back a bit later. We showed our IDs, and the staff at the front asked which changing room we wanted to use. Rhett went to the men’s and I went to the womens. It was a decidedly normal and affirming San Francisco experience, even if I had felt a little apprehensive about whether we might have a hard time.

The time there was pleasant. I changed in the women’s locker room, and no one was phased to see a non-op trans woman. Rhett and I met back up in the main area, and enjoyed the baths and saunas. It was the same as any other time I’d been there. A mostly cis crowd, but if anything a slightly disproportionate number of trans people were enjoying the space, relative to the population of San Franisco. It’s how it’s always been at Banya in my experience. At one point I was foiled in my attempt to not learn about the election by a well-meaning cis ally who approached me and Rhett in the tubs, expressed solidarity, and asked how we felt about Trump railing against trans people in his speech. Oh well. I would learn about it anyway.

Why am I sharing this? Well you may or may not have seen news this week about protests against Archimedes Banya coming out of San Francisco right now. According to the wayback machine, as reported in this article from the SF Examiner, a few days after my visit, the Banya management surreptitiously updated the pages for their longstanding women’s and men’s night monthly events. The new copy read “To further accommodate their religious beliefes we have to limit admission on Women’s Day to BIOLOGICAL WOMEN ONLY” (emphasis was present in the original text).

After activists noticed this change and the press started reporting on the discrimination, Banya tried to change their language and announced that they would have two women’s nights: one for the bigots and a separate “inclusive” women’s night. This text is posted in a full-page popup window on their website at time of posting. No “inclusive” men’s night has been proposed.

This is still discrimination, regardless of their justifications. Archimedes Banya has banned transgender men and women from using their facilities on two nights out of the month.

Reporting on this has been mixed in its quality. The headline from the SF Standard reads “SF bathhouse excludes trans women from new ladies-only night”. This is an innacurate and I’d assume malicious framing. Trans women have always attended Women’s night at Banya. My husband used to attend pre-transition and spoke of it fondly. It was a less crowded and quieter night to attend, and I’d been looking forward to attending at some point with friends. I’ve often recommended it to other trans women and nonbinary friends who were interested in having a bathing experience in the city but were uncomfortable and wanted to have a safe experience!

Trans women have always attended Women’s night at Banya.

No, this was not some new special terf night. They banned trans people quietly from the existing men’s and women’s nights, and have only begun to attempt to justify themselves after receiving pushback. Since they have only suggested adding a second “inclusive” women’s night but not one for men, it’s clear that this was always about trans women. Banya has only doubled down since then

So, to be perfectly clear, they specifically trying to exclude the group of women who have external genitalia, on the premise of discomfort by a subset of the women who attend women’s night. This “separate but equal” approach is not acceptable in San Francisco, and I am proud of everyone who is standing up against this. Businesses are feeling emboldened by the Trump administration to start discriminating against trans people. We cannot give an inch or they will take a mile. Fortunately we have laws against this type of discrimination, and I hope that San Francisco will do the right thing and enforce them. In the meantime, I will be boycotting Archimedes Banya, and I encourage you to join me and tell your friends. I’m not just disappointed, but also mad.