Minneapolis city leaders are barreling ahead with plans to legalize adult bathhouses and sex venues where consenting adults can engage in sexual activity, scrapping a 38-year ban enacted during the AIDS epidemic.
The push, driven by activists, comes as the gay Somali community in Minneapolis has been clamoring to legalize bathhouses. City leaders are considering the proposal that would allow patrons to engage in sexual intercourse in the venues, the New York Post reports.
This latest development underscores the deepening assimilation issues in a city long transformed by mass Somali immigration.
Minneapolis may legalize adult bathhouses – allowing adults to engage in sexual activity https://t.co/OTnhxHth3q pic.twitter.com/Lt0nGeLKZP
— New York Post (@nypost) April 8, 2026
The Minneapolis City Council has referred a package of four proposed ordinances to staff for further development. These include creating licensing and business regulations for adult sex venues that facilitate sexual activity between consenting adults, updating zoning codes for sexually oriented businesses, revising health and sanitation standards related to contagious diseases, and adding exceptions to miscellaneous offenses provisions.
Activists from the Safer Sex Spaces Coalition have led the charge. They argue the 1988 ban, which targeted “high-risk sexual conduct” such as fellatio, anal intercourse, and vaginal intercourse in commercial settings, is outdated and stigmatizing.
“The Minneapolis Health Department and other public health organizations acknowledge this ordinance is no longer the tool needed to promote public health, “the coalition stated adding “Social science research tells us that commercial sex spaces, like gay saunas, are important for promoting safer sex practices, enhancing HIV prevention, and increasing access to testing and treatment. These spaces also enhance feelings of identity, camaraderie, authenticity, and belonging. They are spaces where people overcome isolation and develop a sense of community and pride.”
Creating a monkeypox epidemic wouldn’t be my first choice to distract attention from Minneapolis’s rampant fraud problem, but it just might work. pic.twitter.com/IbtZIKqjAK
— Thousands of Tiny Tyrants (@Tiny_Tyrants) April 8, 2026
Council Member Jason Chavez supported referring the measures, saying: “LGBTQIA+ gathering spaces, including bathhouses, have long been targeted by criminalization and policing, and our communities have paid a devastating price for that. That’s why we’re referring this to staff to begin building policy alongside community members and stakeholders.”
Council President Elliott Payne noted that such activities “already happen in the shadows, and we are trying to ensure that they are safe for patrons, especially when LGBTQ+ individuals are under attack by the federal government.” He pointed to potential regulations modeled on San Francisco, including condom availability and staff training on harm reduction.
A spokesperson for Mayor Jacob Frey indicated the mayor supports continued exploration of the issue.
Hardly surprising given that all he does is pander to Somalis.
The original 1988 ban drew backing even from within the LGBTQ+ community at the time, including the city’s first openly gay council member, Brian Coyle, who backed the measure before his death from AIDS-related complications in 1991. Activists now claim the rules disproportionately harmed same-sex partnerships and people with HIV/AIDS while driving gatherings into unsafe private spaces.
Recent coverage confirms the council delayed full debate on the ordinances this week but remains committed to directing staff research.
Tim Walz entering the bathhouse pic.twitter.com/AlMnwP8PHK
— GoshuAAAA (@Skipper1913) April 8, 2026
Critics view the effort as emblematic of misplaced priorities. While neighborhoods struggle with the social and economic fallout of rapid demographic change—including documented fraud schemes and parallel economies—the focus shifts to licensing orgy venues and updating “stigmatizing language” in city code.
Minneapolis—often called “Little Mogadishu”—has faced repeated exposure for hundreds of millions in Somali cash smuggling operations routed through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in addition to an explosion of Somali related fraud scandals.
TSA whistleblowers who highlighted these schemes faced pushback, including accusations of racism and Islamophobia from figures tied to the Walz administration aimed at silencing concerns over Somali fraud.
Legalizing commercial sex spaces in a city already wrestling with smuggling networks and identity politics does not signal enlightened governance. It signals a leadership class more attuned to activist coalitions than to restoring order and cohesion.
Voters across the heartland have grown weary of cities that import unassimilated populations and then contort public policy around every resulting demand.
Minneapolis offers a cautionary tale of where such approaches lead—public health debates recycled from the 1980s, now layered atop deeper failures in border security and cultural integration.
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