Ernst, Ronald Allison

B.A.R. writer Mike Hippler wrote a column, AIDS and the Baths: To Go or Not to Go...? in May 1983. Hippler included comments by Ron Ernst in the article: Ron Ernst, the owner of the Jaguar Book Store [on 18th Street], which is celebrating its thirteenth anniversary this year, isn't nervous about AIDS personally. I'm gonna die, I was born to die, and if that's going to be the way, then that's it, he states simply. Whether or not they are nervous, as bath house or sex club owners do they feel at all responsible for the AIDS problem? Ron Ernst says no. As far as communicable diseases are concerned, I don't think the sex clubs are responsible. You get some horny males, and they've got to have some place to screw around. We are concerned, however. Ernst feels that the sex clubs are not the proper place for health monitoring and education. I don't want that going on. People come in here to forget what's going on outside and to do their thing.