After 10 months of social distancing, the residents of Brooklyn’s communal “sex houses” are frustrated, to say the least.
“I’d give my left testicle to go to an orgy,” said Kenneth Play, co-founder of Hacienda Villa.
Play is one of more than 30 residents, ranging from ages 20-45, who live in the three Bushwick houses (the Lodge, Villa and Tower) operated by the Hacienda sex club.
Along with the residents, the club has more than 700 members. Before the pandemic, the roommates (who have their own bedrooms but share a kitchen, living room and bathrooms) hosted bacchanals at the Villa once or twice a month. Hundreds of Hacienda members would flirt, soak nude in the backyard hot tub or descend to the mood-lit basement to get it on.
In 2019, the club hosted 19 “play parties” — orgies — as well as 45 other events. In 2020, there were only five before the pandemic.
“Sexual isolation was difficult to grapple with,” said Violet, a resident and party planner who, like others, asked to withhold her last name. “We couldn’t meet new people or feel desired the same, so there was definitely an upsurge in my own self-pleasure routine.”
Maybe no one suffered more than Play: “In 2019 I had about 100 lovers. But for 2020 the number’s more like five.”
The three houses have their own rules. Sex among roommates, for example, is verboten at the Villa.
“But we have no such rule at the Lodge,” explained Play’s physician fiancé, Karen, who lives there.
As an emergency room doctor, Karen herself caused controversy: Early in the pandemic, some Villa roommates were so uncomfortable with her visiting Play that she temporarily moved out of the house. (Her Lodge roommates apparently had no such qualms about safety, however.)
Residents of the three homes — who work in fields including real estate and finance, marketing and the arts, medicine and plumbing supplies — initially bickered over whether or not to isolate in their own rooms and if masks should be worn at all times.
Eventually they moved roommates around on different floors based on their “risk tolerance,” although two people decided to move out over safety concerns.
“It wasn’t so much that there was bad blood. It was more we couldn’t find a happy medium,” said Beth Sparksfire, the club’s director of events and membership, whose husband, Andrew Sparksfire, is a Hacienda co-founder.
Guests are still allowed, for sex or otherwise, but roommates are expected to be respectful of each other’s safety.
According to Play, quarantining was never going to be an easy sell to proponents of free love.
“If you have a group of people who are social butterflies and into casual sex, it’s especially hard to lock down,” he said.
Sources in the polyamory world told The Post that some adventurers have been getting their kink elsewhere, like resorts in Mexico with looser restrictions on how many people are allowed to gather. “Tulum’s less strict,” one swinger said. “It’s more like Florida.”
Others have gone upstate for fun. Armed with negative COVID tests, two dozen revelers recently rented an Airbnb in the Catskills to fool around en masse.
“The last year has been so isolating and I’ve missed the human touch,” one of the partygoers said. “Thankfully that weekend I got touched, a lot.”
The Hacienda, meanwhile, has been hosting virtual events, including naked yoga and even “cyber orgies” where members get it on from home while others watch.
With vaccines on the horizon, members see a brighter future.
“We’re looking forward to getting back to normal,” Andrew said.
“Our normal,” Beth explained, “with lots of close proximity between gyrating, naked bodies . . .”
“. . . the bodies of strangers!” Karen added.