![gay men cruising gym steam room gay men cruising gym steam room](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2e/30/5d/2e305dda4f5c183a71ae8457a6332849.jpg)
''People complain, and they shut things down, and then it creeps back up again.'' ''It has always been there, and it has its ups and downs,'' Charles Kaiser, the author of the 1997 book ''The Gay Metropolis,'' said of sexual behavior in locker rooms. And the steam rooms, showers and saunas at health clubs continue to be meeting places for men seeking anonymous sexual activity, much as bathhouses in New York and other cities were before fear of AIDS prompted a widespread shutdown in the 1980's. Men cruising men in the locker room is a near-century old pursuit.
GAY MEN CRUISING GYM STEAM ROOM FULL
''I don't get the full benefit of my membership.'' ''They're infringing on my right to work out at the gym without having to deal with that nonsense,'' said Cyd Zeigler Jr., a member of David Barton Gym and a co-founder of, an online magazine for gay sports fans and athletes. Not all gymgoers are blasé when they stumble upon locker-room canoodling. When he opened the door, he saw two men kissing and fondling each other. Below, signage posted in the locker room that went largely ignored.I remember reading an article about this in the Times.Ī FEW months ago Timothy Young, a comedian and puppeteer, headed to the steam room of a Y.M.C.A. Right now! I mean, come on, there are other venues to patronize if you are looking for naughty fun-there are some guys that just want to change, shower, and use the steam room without having to be gawked at and/or accosted."Īlas, the end of an era. fumes, " I feel the steam room and locker room should be off limits when searching for your next Mr. Regulars to the bathhouse bypass the workout facilities and go directly to the wet area," notes Dave D. "Locker room, steam, and Sauna have become nothing more than a gay bathhouse with management encouraging this behavior by turning a blind eye to it. "I demand a discount."Īccording to some Yelp reviews, the steam scene has gotten out of control, and not in a good way. "The management claims that everyone is happy about the decision, but not the bitches I queried in the locker room," notes our frustrated source. " We've received too many complaints," they explained, adding, "Now that the steam rooms are closing, we'll expand the shower area with more stalls and provide stalls with doors."Īccording to a gym member (who asked to remain anonymous) we spoke to, not everyone is kosher with the gym's new steam-free environment. (The Castro location's room of sweat and heat, we should point out, is famous for après-workout sexual release "the protein pod" is what one friend of SFist crudely calls it.) The Fitness SF management told SFist that they decided to close the steam rooms at both locations after allegedly receiving loads of negative feedback. Jarring yellow tape greeted steam-heat fans this week, blocking them from both entrance and eroticism. The locally-owned gym, with locations throughout the Bay Area, decided to close the steam rooms at the Castro and SoMa locations because they couldn't police the sexual activity, particularly in the Castro location. As the LGBT community waits for the SCOTUS to rule on same-sex marriage, another pressing issue lurks under the radar: the right to get a hand job in the steam room at Fitness SF.