For many gay men, gloryholes are a familiar part of gay sauna and bathhouse culture, but their story stretches far beyond the more modern lgbtq+ leisure spaces we know today. They emerged during decades when gay sex was criminalised, dangerous, and often hidden. These small openings became practical tools for intimacy while reducing personal risk.
Understanding the history of gloryholes helps explain their presence and popularity in gay saunas today, with most venues having 1 or many! To explore them search our directory on Gay Sauna Guide and filter using facilities
Gloryholes did not begin as erotic novelties. They developed as practical responses to repression and surveillance. In public toilets, factories, cinemas, and basements, queer men adapted the spaces available to them.
These openings allowed sexual contact without identification, reduced legal and social exposure, and allowed desire to exist quietly under pressure. Gloryholes represent ingenuity and resilience. Many modern venues listed on Gay Sauna Guide now honour this legacy by offering similar features in safe, intentional environments.
The earliest recorded uses of the word “gloryhole” date to the 1950s and 1960s in North American slang. It appeared primarily in underground contexts, rather than mainstream publications.
One of the earliest documented references is found in US slang dictionaries, where gloryhole was used to describe a hole or opening that allowed anonymous interaction. Later editions of the Oxford English Dictionary trace its sexualised meaning to mid-20th-century American English, noting its circulation in informal and subcultural speech before entering wider awareness.
The term also appeared in adult magazines and pulp publications of the 1960s and 1970s, often without explanation—suggesting it was already understood within certain communities. These publications acted as informal record-keepers for language that mainstream media ignored.
By the late 1970s, the word began to surface in sociological and sexology research, particularly studies of anonymous encounters in urban spaces. While academics often avoided the slang itself, its inclusion in interviews and transcripts helped fix the term in historical record.
Historically, gloryholes were almost never installed by venue owners. They were created by users themselves. Gay men modified existing spaces quietly and collectively, driven by necessity rather than novelty.
This history matters because it shows how gay male culture has always shaped its own environments. Today’s gay saunas have transformed this improvised practice into intentional design, for everyone’s enjoyment! They range from standard glory holes, to much larger “booty holes” and also the popular “Czech Glory Hole” variety.
Once upon a time, gloryholes lived in shadows and whispers. Today, they are part of a more open conversation. The move from hidden cut-outs to intentional venue features reflects a much broader cultural shift. What was once secret is now one of the most popular facilities within gay saunas and bathhouses and indeed still exists in more clandestine and informal spaces.
Curious visitors can chat, swap stories, and compare notes on the world’s best gloryholes in the Gay Sauna Guide chat forums. If you fancy joining the conversation, you can sign up here.
Gloryholes are part of gay male history, shaped by repression, creativity, and desire. What began as a survival strategy has become one option among many, now embraced openly within modern gay sauna culture.
For more insights and guides, explore Behind The Steam on Gay Sauna Guide.
