A GREEN LIGHT FOR RED LIGHTS? When AIDS struck San Francisco, city authorities closed many of the gay bathhouses. In France, land of Descartes and Voltaire, a different logic prevails: AIDS has prompted a call to reopen the brothels, which have been banned since 1946. The idea comes from Michele Barzach, a gynecologist and feminist who gained renown in 1986 when she became Health Minister in the government of Jacques Chirac. Now a deputy mayor of Paris, Barzach has not abandoned her support for women's rights. But she argues that the only way to keep AIDS at bay is to get...
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