Before AIDS, a vibrant gay sexual culture flourished in New York, simultaneously shaped by the energy of gay liberation and constrained by widespread homophobia. Bathhouses (communal venues offering private rooms, saunas, and plunge pools for relaxation and sex), backrooms (darkened rooms at the back of bars for sex), tearooms (public restrooms used for clandestine encounters), and a plethora of bars formed “the circuit,” a network of communal sex spaces where gay men explored pleasure, identity, and intimacy. St. Marks Baths stood at the center of this world—not just as a place for sex but also as a site of community, routine, and self-fashioning that would soon become central to early AIDS organizing. Located in the East Village, St. Marks was one of the largest bathhouses in the country and a symbol of urban gay freedom. It drew thousands of visitors each week and offered massage rooms, lounges, a restaurant, and private spaces for sex. Places like St. Marks represented autonomy and erotic possibility at a time when few public institutions welcomed gay life. This fantastical poster in the style of classic sci-fi illustration captures the surreal, sex-positive exuberance of the pre-AIDS era. The design suggests erotic spectacle, inviting viewers into a world where pleasure is both routine and liberatory. While he is best known in popular culture for his illustrations for the Conan the Barbarian and Tarzan paperbacks and his movie posters for National Lampoon, Knightriders, and Q: The Winged Serpent, Boris Vallejo did not specialize in gay subject matter nor was he part of the gay scene. His hypermasculine, homoerotic aesthetic, however, found an enthusiastic audience in gay communities. This poster remains one of the few known instances of Vallejo’s commercial work being used to directly market a gay space, demonstrating how the fantasy genre could be used to visualize or embody gay freedom.