Minneapolis to Host First Drag Show Inside City Hall for Pride Kickoff
City leaders say the event signals formal recognition of LGBTQ+ communities while the council moves to reconsider a ban on bathhouses framed as part of HIV-prevention policy.
Overview
- The City of Minneapolis will stage a breakfast, reception and a three-to-five performer drag show at City Hall to kick off Pride Month on Thursday, June 11, and the City Council will read an honorary Pride Month resolution.
- The council has given unanimous support to the honorary resolution, which lists past local LGBTQ+ initiatives and explicitly references the creation of the Transgender Equity Council and the protection of drag as free speech.
- Ordinances that would create a pathway to legalize bathhouses and adult sex venues are advancing through City Council committees, a move framed by Council President Elliott Payne’s office as a public-health strategy to boost HIV prevention, testing and treatment.
- Minneapolis’s recent institutional steps for LGBTQ+ representation include the 2017 approval of a Transgender Equity Council and the 2018 swearing-in of Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham as openly transgender council members.
- Coverage of the City Hall event and the bathhouse debate varies by outlet, with some reports treating the show and resolution as routine civic recognition and others highlighting the bathhouse discussion as a contentious policy shift to watch for next committee votes.