Gyms are reluctant to say how many complaints they get from members, and the New York City Health Department, which has the authority to close the saunas and steam rooms of health clubs that fail to crack down on sexual activity, rarely hears from gymgoers. Just how much sex occurs in gym locker rooms - and whether it's more prevalent today than in the past - is difficult to gauge. "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.
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"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.
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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. A FEW months ago Timothy Young, a comedian and puppeteer, headed to the steam room of a Y.M.C.A.