Gym boots gay man for advertising himself

[meegbear]

"I NEED A MAN OR A DATE," David Cano's workout shirt declared, followed with his phone number.

Originally created as a joke, the shirt caused discomfort among some gym members. The gym's ownership, neither appreciative of the humor nor sympathetic to Cano's plight, revoked his membership citing repeated display of "inappropriate solicitations."

"It's basically because I'm open," Cano contends to KOVR/CBS13, calling it discrimination. Cano is weighing legal options.

http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/Gym_boots_gay_man_for_advertising_hims_0218.html

[joeybee12]

1. What city did this happen in? I can't tell from the link. Thanks.

[meegbear]

3. Elk Grove CA

[acmavm]

2. Whatever happened to truth in advertising?

[derzauberberg]

4. Support Gay-owned Businesses

I think it's time for all gay men now to revoke their memberships to this gym, and put through money into a gay-friendly gym.

[terrya]

5. They revoked his membership. Because he wore a shirt.

I just don't know what to say anymore about that kind of sheer idiocy.

[haightpillsbury]

6. Bah.

My personal take: On one hand, he should've seen it coming. On the other, what a stupid reason to kick a guy out of a gym. It's a bright red shirt with something tacky written on it -- on the BACK, even! It's not like you have to read it. Even if you read it, it's not like he's going to grind his meat-and-veg in your face and sing and gyrate along to the lyrics if they happen to play Blondie's "Call Me" in the middle of a squat-thrust session.

All bets are off if the acronym "PnP" appears anywhere on the shirt, though.

[SacredCow]

7. I've certainly seen more offensive shirts in a gym....

If only they were so proactive in pursuing those who don't wipe off the equipment....

At least I now know how to get out of my contract, if I ever want to switch!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. asswipes. seriously this is nothing aside from homophobia.

[davidinalameda]

9. this is debatable

if he didn't have his phone number on it, I can see his point

I think the shirt is in poor taste, no matter how he meant it

[GOPNotForMe]

10. You're seriously defending this?

Do you think it would happen if he weren't gay?

[davidinalameda]

11. I'm not defending it

and no, I don't think it would have happened if he wasn't gay

but the shirt is out of place for the gym

I wouldn't wear it to a gay only gym

[Moloch]

12. That is inappropriate solicitation.

I'm glad they revoked his membership.. Gay men shouldn't be able to troll for sex at gyms any more than straight people should. This guy should have gone to a bathhouse or something if he wants a tawdry exchange of sexual diseases.

[bigscott]

13. Wow

date = tawdry exchange of sexual diseases

welcome to the 21st century :wtf:

[TechBear_Seattle]

14. You have a problem with free speech, therefore free speech should be banned

Yours is the thought-process of a fascist.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. or an idiot.

[TechBear_Seattle]

27. Isn't that what I said?

:hi:

[Zuiderelle]

16. Where did his shirt say he wanted "tawdry exchange of sexual diseases" !

That's such amazingly homophobic garbage you just let out of your fingers. Go fuck yourself.

[terrya]

17. The t-shirt said "I need a date"

And you went and extrapolated from that "a tawdry exchange of sexual diseases". That's just disgusting on every possible level. Pure, nasty, Grade-A homophobia.

Fuck you.

[Moloch]

30. Your personal attack aside...

Too often people think of gyms as bars and baths. People are there to work out not for a hook up. I am openly gay and I'm sick and tired of people crying homophobia when lewd behavior shouldn't be tolerated from straight or gay people. Homosexuality is not your personal excuse to use the entire world as a place to pick up tricks.

[BillSam]

31. You sound like the anti-sex police!

The guy in question was only wearing a friggin' tee shirt with a funny, probably facetious message on it. He wasn't caught groping somebody in the shower (not that that's necessarily a bad thing, mind you.) C'mon, Wearing a tee shirt such as the one described hardly sounds like "lewd" behavior.

So people only go to gyms to work out, never for a hook up, eh? You mean to tell me straight men and women never exchange phone numbers etc. when they meet in a gym?

Get real!

I sense you have issues that have nothing to do with this guy and his shirt.

What's really going on here? Not gettin' any? I'm not trying to be nasty, I just don't understand why you're angrier at a fellow gay than you are at the bigots who threw him out of the gym for specious reasons (we all know that if a straight man or woman had a similar tee shirt on they would not have been asked to leave.)

I mean, what's going on with you?

[terrya]

32. The t-shirt read, again to remind you, " I need a date or a man"

Not "I need a man with all sorts of sexual diseases to fuck me bareback".

I see nothing whatsoever wrong with that t-shirt.

And if I were at the gym and I saw a heterosexual man with a t-shirt saying "I need a date, I need a woman" I wouldn't find anything wrong with that, either.

[TechBear_Seattle]

33. I would find something very wrong with such a shirt

We can't allow straights any special priviledges, right? Why should they be allowed to flaunt their heterosexuality in everyone's faces? I mean, we all know that a guy wearing a shirt with "I need a woman or a date" only wants "a tawdry exchange of sexual diseases." And at least a gay man won't knock up his date and leave her as an unwed welfare mom.


And if it wasn't obvious: :sarcasm:

[BillSam]

37. LOL

[Zuiderelle]

35. Heterosexuality is also no one's excuse to use the entire world, blah blah blah

Why do you immediately assume someone is wanting sex (even though even THAT shouldn't matter, as long as he isn't soliciting for payment for services rendered), just because he's GAY??? I know that most people wouldn't assume the same of a straight man looking for a date in the exact same way. I am CERTAIN of it. In fact, he'd probably be invited as a guest on the talk show circuit and would get thousands of calls from women nationwide.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Duncan Grant]

36. I think you're judgmental and quick to jump to conclusions.

What's "lewd" about the situation or this man's behavior? Project much?

I'm openly gay and you can believe me when I tell you: it's none of your business if I use the "entire world as a place to pick up tricks". Furthermore, I don't give a flying fuck if you think my lewd behavior shouldn't be tolerated.

Thankfully, not all gay men comport themselves with your decorum. I'm probably not the only one (gay or straight) who wouldn't want to live in your ivory tower.

[cboy4]

40. OMG, you are such a homophobe!

damkira, your realize that you're a homophobe, right?

Because gay people can be homophobes.

Are you're one with a capital H.

[ronnykmarshall]

18. Yeah that's all us homos do.

:eyes:


What a bunch of homophobic shit.

[queerart]

19. Hummmmm........

The Only Charitable Excuse One Can Bestow For Your Squalid Frolic In The Gutter.......


Is That You Apparently Are Copiously Touched........

[Name removed]

21. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. wearing a t-shirt is solicitation? bull fucking shit. its homophobia to see solicitation in that.

[GOPNotForMe]

28. Yikes. You have shameful views.

And you insist on everyone knowing, too!

[mattfromnossa]

15. I wonder if

he was straight and the shirt read, ""I NEED A WOMAN OR A DATE," followed with his phone number if this would have caused such a stir at this gym??? :eyes:

[xchrom]

20. personally -- i think his shirt is really funny.

i can't even understand any of why it would be offensive.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. people love to be offended. especially about sex (or anything remotely sexual)(

vonnegut wrote a very good article about how we have lost all other forms of morality and now can only think about sexual morality as morality.

[xchrom]

25. ain't that right? nt

[littlebit]

26. I don't think it is offensive

I think it is kind of funny.

[BillSam]

29. No one was uncomfortable with his shirt

they were uncomfortable with the fact that he was gay, especially OPENLY gay. If he was obviously gay they just jumped on his shirt and its message as a way of throwing him out that wouldn't seem (to their pea brains at least) discriminatory. Bull!

As has been stated here quite well by others but which I will nevertheless repeat:

Pure and simple homophobia!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

34. agreed. bet they wouldnt kicked out a woman who wore that shirt

[LeftyMom]

38. I used to work in that same shopping center, and I'm from the area, so here's some local insight:

1. That gym has a reputation as a meat market, so it's kinda funny that people are getting upset about the guy "advertising" himself. That's all anybody does there. If they kicked out every hetero woman in a tight pair of pants with words on the butt the place would go out of business tomorrow.

2. Elk Grove is pretty much the town that white flight (and asshole sprawl developers, but that's another rant) built, and is pretty socially conservative for the area. (Y'know the "under god" thing? The district that fought to keep it was Elk Grove Unified, also infamous as the K-12 educators of yours truly.) The Maude Flanders "won't somebody think of the children!" routine plays well there. Nevermind that gyms don't generally permit kids outside the daycare area due to liability, damned if somebody didn't try it on that news report anyhow.

3. I'm curious to find out what the gym he's having no problem at is. I have a pretty good idea (there's one gym in the general area that has the reputation for being the one that people actually go to to work out, and I'd lay money that's it) but would like to know, so I can suggest it to my family out on that end of town. I'd tell them to stay away from the CalFit, but everybody knows they suck anyhow.

[cboy4]

39. Hey LM, isn't that the gym that kicked out the woman for

breastfeeding? :eyes:

[LeftyMom]

41. Yep. They did it in Rocklin, too.

Apparently there wasn't enough of a flap the first time, I guess.

Story here: http://www.dhs.ca.gov/director/owh/owh_main/pubs_events/news_articles/well_women/07.2006breastfeedingpublic.pdf

BTW, I love the bit about them having lounges for nursing mothers. Until they have lounges for bottlefeeding mothers, I'm gonna assume that's just a way to keep the evil boobies out of sight, nice sofa or no.

[Kaufman_Lib]

42. How is his sign much more different than someone who dresses provokatively

Aren't they basically soliciting themselves. although more subtly?