The owner had to move the weekly parties to a smaller, private residence. Minneapolis used this so-called 'bathhouse ordinance' last year to raid and close down a popular, unlicensed gay sex club operating out of a warehouse in north Minneapolis. City laws still define it as an 'irreversible and uniformly fatal' disease, which is why it shut down the city's bathhouses in 1986 and prevents any new ones from opening. The problem is, Minneapolis is holding fast to 30-year-old scientific understanding of HIV. Now they're hoping for a centralized, sanitary, controlled place for everyone to go, where shame-free testing is offered on a regular basis. Paul as innovative medications like PrEP, a once-a-day pill that virtually eliminates the risk of transmitting HIV, are freeing people to live full sexual lives without fear of contagion. OutFront Minnesota provided a legal analysis, the Red Door Clinic a health perspective.Īudience members made it clear that congregate sex is thriving in Minneapolis and St. Gay men still cruise the parks and malls, taking risks to meet strangers.Ībout 50 people gathered at Lush bar Monday night to hear the case for reexamining Minneapolis' ban on bathhouses, the predominant hookup scene for gay men prior to the 1980s AIDS epidemic. There are sex parties and swingers meetups all over the Twin Cities, hosted in crowded houses and hotels.