After the vote on the ordinance passed, one gay constituent wrote to him comparing Coyle to Judas: “How many straight votes have you sold us out for?” His scrawled meeting notes on a yellow legal pad read: “But this issue, the so-called ‘bathhouse’ issue is the most frightening because it is so divisive and I risk rejection by many people I respect.” And he was right. Though Coyle initially did not support the ordinance, he later changed his mind. This, combined with the entire weight of Minneapolis’s gay community, was on his shoulders as he considered his decision. So if the ordinance was discriminatory and it may not have worked in preventing HIV/AIDS, why did Coyle support it?Ĭoyle himself was tested positive for HIV in 1986, which was not public knowledge until 1991, the year he died from AIDs-related complications. He demonstrated commitment to the public health of his people: their right to be safe outside, their right to have sex, their right to privacy, their right to be protected by the state, and their right to gather together. These are not the only types of sexual acts that can spread HIV, just the ones that are most associated with queer people and sex workers.Ĭoyle had a track record of fighting for the rights of queer people in the Twin Cities. The ordinance itself is overtly discriminatory, defining “high-risk sexual conduct” as: (a) Fellatio (b) Anal intercourse (c) Vaginal intercourse with persons who engage in sexual acts in exchange for money. The Twin Cities were not alone many major metropolitan cities closed their bathhouses (SF in 1984, NYC in 1985) as the AIDS epidemic tore through communities of men who have sex with men, transgender women, and IV drug users.īathhouses still fall under the designation of banned “hazardous sites” named in Minneapolis City Ordinance Chapter 219.5, though experts in the 1980s debated whether closures would actually prevent HIV/AIDS.
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Paul and Minneapolis, respectively, passed ordinances banning the operation and existence of establishments that facilitated “high-risk sexual conduct.” This meant the closure of viewing booths, sex-oriented movie theatres, and mainly bathhouses. But not all decisions are easy, especially in the middle of a plague. Once elected, he confronted the vice squad on their entrapment of gay men in adult bookstores, confronted the police chief on why anti-gay hate crimes and murders were not thoroughly investigated, and fought to increase funding for the Minnesota AIDS Project.Ĭoyle was a champion that the LGBTQ+ community looked to for representation and leadership. But these past decisions can guide us into a more empathetic and inclusive queer future.īrian Coyle, an openly gay Minneapolis council member, was elected in 1983, having been out since 1971 and a gay rights and anti-war activist prior to being on the city council. He later became the first openly gay Minneapolis City Council member // Photo by Warrenhanson, Creative Commons 3.0 The decisions to close bathhouses during the AIDS epidemic were not always easy or right. Brian Coyle was also a co-founder of Hundred Flowers and a frequent contributor.