Cruising The Men’s Locker Room

Jason Yu
March 28, 2011

• 

• Tweet

Read More: fitness, gay, Gay fitness, gay men and the gym, gym, gym etiquette, men's gym locker room, Queerty

Can’t be tamed like Miley Cyrus.

A couple of weeks ago our editor of GayRVA.com sent an e-mail to a number of our contributors including myself about a recent “Rants and Raves” post on Richmond’s Craigslist. The subject was about “gay men and the gym.” The basis of the rant was from a straight individual, who care less about ones sexual orientation, but has noticed a significant amount of gay men looking for a casual hookup at the gym, especially in the gym locker room. To him, the locker room deemed a sacred space, and he found it annoying and frustrating because gay men use the locker room as their personal sex room and single meet-up area. I’m not going to go into further detail, but you get the gist. You can read the entire Craigslist post here.

Flash forward to this week, I read a similar post in Queerty.com, on how should guys cruising the gym locker room be handled? We’re all familiar withundercover news outlets like ABC and NBC performing stings and exposing predators and Queerty wanted to see how others would react if men, gay or straight, saw other guys screwing around in the showers and sauna. It opens the floor to debate posing such questions like should it be tolerated? Should the man hunt be cracked down? Does it further the damage of The Gays’ reputation?

In my honest and personal opinion, I don’t approve of such an activity. I’ve been to my fair share of gym franchises (24-hour Fitness, Crunch, Golds Gym, Washington Sports Clubs) and I haven’t engaged or seen anything more than checking one out, eye contact and small talk. However, when we’re talking about an all male gym, that’s a different story. If you want to experience it (and I’ve heard and seen the stories), you can visit David Barton Gym in Chelsea, Edge Gym on the upper east side in New York City or the nearest military base MWR.

I’m sure many will agree, the purpose of the men’s locker room is to change in and out of your workout gear, use the sauna to cleanse the body through perspiration and use the shower solely to shower. Let’s be real though, you may engage in conversation out of no where and you can’t help where your eyes wander around the room especially if you’re in an open recreational shower and you see something you like or something that goes up.

Do yourself, your dignity and a favor for the other men and take it outside of the locker room and furthermore outside the gym, if you’re interested and get down in your shower at home or his. Let’s not make gay men’s heaven turn into gay men’s hell.

The men’s locker room to a certain percentage of gay men would seize the opportunity to either fulfill a fantasy or can’t resist the fact that a striking someone they see is attractive, sweaty and about to shower, can’t resist the temptation and open up the invitation.

Maybe gym’s have to take that extreme step of either enforcing a policy on the wall and have a gym employee make sure there’s no public indecency and hanky panky going on. What do you think?

• 

Jason Yu is Partner and Director of Marketing for The Hardwicke Group in Richmond, VA. His company specializes in new media, PR and influence with an emphasis on digital marketing strategy and reputation management. Jason enjoys keeping active by biking, running and working out on a daily basis. Jason has ran in over twenty running races including the Marine Corps Marathon, Tough Mudder, Richmond Marathon, and Xterra races. Interesting facts about Jason is that he is a music fanatic, in search fro the best macaroni and cheese, and aspiring “mixologist.”