The Minneapolis City Council is expected to consider directing staff to consider four proposed ordinances that would rescind the city’s decades-old ban on businesses that promote “high-risk sexual activity” enacted during the 1980s AIDS crisis and establish a regulatory framework for such locations.
One of the ordinances would add a new chapter to city code to allow adult sex establishments and establish licensing and operating regulations for establishments where consenting adults can engage in sexual activity.
Another ordinance would update definitions and standards for the use of sexual orientation, eliminate “prejudicial” language, and revise the city’s zoning code to reflect advances in HIV prevention that first prompted the 1988 bathhouse ban. The third ordinance would amend the city’s health ordinance, particularly provisions regarding communicable diseases and so-called “high-risk sexual activity.”
The fourth ordinance would amend the city’s “other crimes” regulations to create an exception for licensed facilities where consenting adults can engage in sex acts.
Adult bathhouses and sex establishments operated in Minneapolis before the 1980s and served as gathering places for gay men. But the emergence of HIV and a surge in AIDS cases, particularly among gay men, prompted some city leaders, including members of the LGBTQ community, to call for its closure. At the time, many major U.S. cities took similar measures to curb the spread of the virus.
In 1986, the city’s last operating adult bathhouse, 315 Health Club, closed its “orgy room” and began distributing free condoms and AIDS prevention information to warn customers about the dangers of condomless sex. Two years later, the store was shut down after picketing by demonstrators holding signs that read “Death from AIDS/Avoid gay bathhouses.” The protest was led by gay former clients who blamed anonymous sex for the spread of HIV.
Shortly after the closure of 315 Health Club, City Councilman Brian Coyle, an openly gay man who secretly lived with HIV and did not disclose his diagnosis until shortly before his death in 1991, helped pass an ordinance banning adult businesses that promote “high-risk sexual activity,” defined as fellatio, anal sex, or vaginal sex for a fee. The ordinance also seeks to limit anonymous sex by banning holes in building bulkheads, also known as “glory holes,” used to facilitate sex acts.
A police officer working in the department’s vice squad at the time told the Star Tribune that prior to the ban, he had arrested hundreds of people on charges of lewd acts, sodomy and prostitution at bookstores and saunas.
Three years ago, the Safer Sex Spaces Coalition, which includes HIV prevention group Aliveness Project, LGBTQ advocacy group OutFront MN, and other community stakeholders, was formed to lobby the City Council to remove language from a 1988 ordinance targeting homosexual activities and people with HIV/AIDS. The ordinance was updated in 2023 to remove that language.
Most recently, the coalition asked the City Council to create a license for adult sex establishments, arguing that the 1988 ban is outdated, especially given advances in HIV prevention, and pushes sex-related gatherings underground into “safe and inaccessible spaces,” while impeding the efforts of clinics and public health professionals to provide safer sex products and STI/HIV testing.
In response, Minneapolis City Council President Elliot Payne and Councilmembers Jason Chavez and Soren Stevenson proposed four ordinance changes.
“LGBTQIA+ gathering places, including bathhouses, have long been the target of criminalization and policing, and our communities have paid a devastating price for it,” Chavez said in a statement. “That’s why we’re communicating this to our staff to start building the policy with community members and stakeholders.”
Payne said: minneapolis star tribune He said the plan to regulate bathhouses would be a model for efforts in San Francisco, where officials are imposing safety and public health regulations that include requirements for condoms, surveillance, employee training, lighting, washing areas and waste disposal facilities.
“Parties and events that operate as adult sex venues are already operating in the shadows, trying to ensure they are safe for patrons, especially when LGBTQ+ individuals are under attack by the federal government,” he said.
The City Council is not yet scheduled to make a final decision, but is expected to direct staff to conduct further research before deciding whether to lift the ban.
Councilman Michael Rainville pointed out that his aunt, Alice Rainville, was the city council president at the time the ban was passed. He said any proposal to revive bathhouse culture in the city would likely be controversial and could face opposition from residents, especially in conservative communities.
“I want to learn more. “It’s a very vague term,” he said. star tribune. “I look forward to the conversation and discussion. It’s hard to know what the intentions are other than to allow sex inside commercial buildings.”
Attorney Joe Tamburino told CBS News that legalizing bathhouses could pose legal risks for operators and complicate the role of law enforcement.
“Number one, there will be owner liability,” he said. “What is the owner responsible for, or when someone goes to a public bathhouse, does he have to sign a waiver saying, ‘No matter what happens here, I’m not going to sue the owner?'”
In the St. Paul neighborhood, bathhouses are allowed to operate as long as “no illegal activities occur” on the premises. There doesn’t seem to be any place in the city where sex is allowed.
A 2024 city audit report on “sexual encounter establishments, swinger clubs, and sex clubs” found that six U.S. cities, including Duluth, Chicago, Seattle, and Miami, allow bathhouses without special permits or regulations that go beyond standard business requirements for amenities such as dining, pools, and alcohol. None of these cities have reported any problems with the companies, according to the company. star tribune.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
