Fitness sf gay
Of Course There’s a Candlelight Vigil for the Closing of the SF Gay Gym’s Communal Showers
The Fitness SF location in the Castro — undeniably the city’s unofficial &#;gay gym&#; — is shuttering its communal showers.
Every capital has one: an unofficial gay gym. It’s, for the most part, situated inside a city’s self-designateg gayborhood; it’s usually not too bougie (think a monthly memberhships somewhere in the low-$s), but require ample mirror latitude; the locker rooms must hold middle benches, though exist with enough space to avoid accidental grazes; it must be a reasonably clean space and contain that one bathroom with above-average lighting, even if it’s overhead. Of course, there must be a communal showering option … for reasons obvious and not-so-obvious reasons … (the latter harkening back to the where “cruising” was the foremost means to find potential sexual partners amid a political climate rife with homophobia).
In San Francisco, Fitness SF’s Castro location has filled and fit that niche since opening in While the space — a two-story perch overlooking Market Street,
Dozens in San Francisco’s gay community gathered Saturday night for a tongue-in-cheek candlelight vigil to honor the closing of a local gym’s communal showers.
Before they closed for construction this week to make way for individual stalls, the showers at Fitness SF’s Castro location were a place where gay men gathered to, well, be gay.
“It was more than a place to rinse off after a workout,” said Kevin John Scott, 41, in a speech to kick off the vigil. “It was a haven for stolen glances, knowing nods, and the unspoken bond of those who understood its significance.”
Jared Scherer, 50, was more suggestive.
“[It was] a place where a proper leg day wasn’t complete without a proper leg spread,” Scherer said during a speech. “A place where the gym’s real cardio workouts took place. … A place where hundreds of men gave unused meaning to the word, ‘shower head.’”
“The communal shower was known as a gay cruising space where sex was not allowed,” Bieschke said. “But, you verb, gay men find a way.”
Bieschke doesn’t believe Fitness SF is being homophobic by shutting down th
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As promised, Gold's Gym this week will become Fitness SF as its contract with the Gold's brand has just run out. Some of you may recall that in , Gold's Gym members (the vast majority of whom, in SF at least, are homosexual) were shocked to learn that the CEO of the gym's parent company had made donations to the conservative group American Crossroads, which was founded by Karl Rove. At the time, the local franchisee, which runs the two San Francisco Gold's Gyms as good as the branches in Oakland and San Rafael, pledged to cut ties with the brand as soon as its current contract expired, which would be September 15, And that period has come.
Following the outcry from Gold's largely gay clientele, the gym's director of operations Don Dickerson said that "For every dollar we pay Gold's Gym in franchise fees we will donate an equal or greater amount to LGBT charities," and further pledged to form a new brand, now named Fitness SF, which would take effect as soon as the Gold's contract ran out.
Robert Rowling,
Subscribe to SFist - San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports
As promised, Gold's Gym this week will become Fitness SF as its contract with the Gold's brand has just run out. Some of you may recall that in , Gold's Gym members (the vast majority of whom, in SF at least, are homosexual) were shocked to learn that the CEO of the gym's parent company had made donations to the conservative group American Crossroads, which was founded by Karl Rove. At the time, the local franchisee, which runs the two San Francisco Gold's Gyms as good as the branches in Oakland and San Rafael, pledged to cut ties with the brand as soon as its current contract expired, which would be September 15, And that period has come.
Following the outcry from Gold's largely gay clientele, the gym's director of operations Don Dickerson said that "For every dollar we pay Gold's Gym in franchise fees we will donate an equal or greater amount to LGBT charities," and further pledged to form a new brand, now named Fitness SF, which would take effect as soon as the Gold's contract ran out.
Robert Rowling,