Overview
- The City Council voted 12-0 with one abstention to direct staff to explore changes that could allow licensed adult bathhouses and sex venues.
- There are no draft ordinances yet, and the process now shifts to staff work, public input, and future council votes on business, zoning, and sanitation rules.
- Advocates from the Safer Sex Spaces Coalition urge regulation as a harm‑reduction tool, and supporters cite bathhouses used for monkeypox vaccine outreach in other cities.
- Some members, including Linea Palmisano, question the need to lift the prohibition and say updating stigmatizing code language should not automatically lead to legalization.
- Minneapolis banned bathhouses in 1988 during the AIDS crisis, revised outdated HIV language in 2024, is examining St. Paul’s licensing model, and has precedent from San Francisco’s 2021 repeal.