Minneapolis City Council votes to repeal gay bathhouse ban

Deena Winter, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jun 25, 2026

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MINNEAPOLIS — Days before Twin Cities Pride weekend, the Minneapolis City Council voted to repeal the city’s 38-year ban on gay bathhouses Thursday. But that doesn’t mean they can open tomorrow.

The issue now goes to Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he will sign it. Then the council would have to set up regulations that would govern adult bathhouses before they could open.

While Thursday’s vote wasn’t trumpeted in advance as a historic moment, the passage of two technical amendments effectively repealed the ban and regulates them like strip clubs.

After council members cast their votes, packed council chambers erupted in applause

The council approved measures that change city code to eliminate barriers to developing licenses for adult bathhouses.

One change moves building standards and related definitions developed for adult entertainment venues from the High-Risk Sexual Conduct Ordinance into the Places of Adult Entertainment code. And the second change amends provisions in the code about venereal diseases and high-risk sexual conduct to allow sex between consenting adults in bathhouses.

Nine council members voted yes; the measures were supported by Council President Elliott Payne and council members Jason Chavez, Robin Wonsley, Aisha Chughtai, Aurin Chowdhury, Soren Stevenson, Michael Rainville, Linea Palmisano and LaTrisha Vetaw.

It was opposed by council members Pearll Warren and Elizabeth Shaffer. Council Vice President Jamal Osman abstained from voting. Council Member Jamison Whiting was absent because he’s playing in the beach handball world championships in Croatia.

Even though he voted in favor of the changes, Rainville said he still has questions about the proposal that he wants answered before future votes to regulate bathhouses.

Frey’s spokesperson released a statement saying he’ll sign the measure but “he wants our focus to remain on providing core city services: safe streets, housing, and economic development.”

Minneapolis once had three bathhouses that were popular with the gay community, particularly in the 1970s. Minneapolis police began raiding them in the late 1970s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s led to a ban by the City Council in 1988.

While some proponents have criticized the ban as “legalized homophobia,” its origin is more nuanced; some proponents of the 1988 ban were gay men who had frequented bathhouses.

The ordinance banned businesses that facilitate “high-risk sexual conduct” — which it defined as fellatio, anal intercourse and vaginal intercourse for pay.

The Safer Sex Spaces Coalition — made up of the Aliveness Project, OutFront MN and others — formed three years ago to lobby the City Council to remove what they said was stigmatizing language in the 1988 ordinance that targeted same-sex partnerships and people with HIV and AIDS.

The ordinance was updated to remove the language in 2023.

Recently, the Safer Sex Spaces Coalition urged Payne and other council members to repeal the ban. The coalition argues the ban hampered outreach to gay communities and drove sex-related gatherings underground, often to “unsafe and inaccessible spaces.”

Payne has agreed, saying parties and events that operate like adult sex venues already happen “in the shadows,” and supporters are trying to ensure they’re safe.

The plan is to emulate San Francisco, which has extensive regulations focused on safety and public health, with requirements for condoms, monitoring, staff training, lighting and wash-up and waste disposal facilities.

The effort to end the bathhouse ban has been led by Chavez — who describes himself as the “only out LGBTQ+” person on the council — who says bathhouses have long been targets of criminalization and policing, and it’s time to end that.

Passage of the measures on Thursday was just the first step; additional changes will need to be made to zoning and public health codes in order to regulate bathhouses before they can open. Chavez said he and the mayor have agreed to work together on the next steps.