It would make more sense to you if you could see a picture of his hemorrhoids.
Esco: I’m gay, and if you saw me naked, you may be impressed by my 9.5 inches*.
*My heart surgery scar.
Ah, the Straight Dope Message Board. Where everyone is intelligent and accepting. Until there is a hint of heresy* and suddenly it’s feeding time. Sure, we have to be polite to real people, but it’s practically our duty to attack the heretics, right? I mean, they might infect someone else!
Honestly I’m a little bemused that so few people even seem to be able to appreciate why the question is being asked. Most of the answers given for why we should be fine sharing dressing rooms with gay people would apply equally well to why we shouldn’t have rooms segregated by sex. It raises the question of why most of us believe, with little thought, that men and women should change separately. This system, along with modest dress etc. for women in various religions and cultures, seems to be based on the assumption that all (or enough) straight men are mad creatures of lust who will be uncontrollable if they catch a flash of female skin. Personally, I don’t think this is a good assumption, but either way, why does it apply in one situation and not another? Or are the situations not analogous, and if not, why? And how are those who feel a compulsion to make homophobes feel like shit better than those “passive” homophobes who have no desire to make anyone feel shit?
*Heresy includes, but is not limited to, any post which can possibly be construed as homophobic, racist or otherwise questions the norms of liberal “thought”.
I know it may be five pages back or so, but one of the earliest responses did question the culture which has made nudity “naughty” and suggested we might all be better off with shared facilities. Being exposed to other peoples bodies in normal situations woud ddo much to diffuse the guilt/lust cycle.
The rest of the posts continued with the mocking of a homophobe.
Added: see post 23.
I imagine most theater folk will respond the same way: It really doesn’t matter who I’m dressing with.
A very nice job of poisoning the well there. Clearly our sole motivation for mocking the guy who thinks that the answer to the problem “I get uncomfortable with the thought of gay people looking at my winky” is “segregate the gays” rather than “Get over it, Mildred” is to reinforce the Immutable Laws of Liberalism. Heaven forfend we suggest that punishing others for our own insecurities is discriminatory at best and a tad crazy at worst.
While the merits and demerits of unisex dressing rooms may be debated, the fact remains that he and pretty much anyone who has used a dressing room from time to time has very likely shared it with a gay person who has managed to refrain from ogling, groping or sexually assaulting him, and therefore there is little substance to these ultimately irrational fears. And when one persists in saying that the argument “It makes me uncomfortable, therefore we should segregate others” constitutes “logic”, well…mockery is inevitable and not entirely inappropriate.
Yeah, it’s not like we’re calling to have him forced into a gay marriage [sub]yet.[/sub]
I never said segregate the gays. I would never wanna force someone to move away from me.
However, I should be allowed the freedom to move away myself if I should choose to do so. In this case that would imply moving to a different dressing room myself
You want the “freedom” to make establishments build a separate dressing room for you.
Ok, so I have a question for you boys. When you go to your locker room, what do you have, just a giant open area? Do you have no changing rooms? Stalls? Are the showers just one giant shower?
Or is it a little more like the girls’ locker room? We have an open locker room, with two changing stalls for the more modest. Our shower stalls are next to each other and have curtains to draw across the front and walls. And there are always toilet stalls.
If the second one is the case, GTF over it. I am a modest person, and thus I go into the stall. I don’t just strip naked. But some women do, and even walk around the locker room butt naked. It’s all about how you feel, and there are accomodations for both kinds of people.
And if it was indeed the first kind of place…why, I’d just go somewhere else. When I sign up for a gym or a fitness center, I ask to see the locker rooms as part of the tour to know if I am comfortable with it or not.
On the other hand, if you really are The Hotness personified and every gay man will be checking out your dick the second you strip, why then, I think you should be forced into the first kind of locker room. I mean, we don’t want to keep that kind of hotness hidden, do we? :rolleyes:
Well your different dressing room is your house. Suck it up wimp.
Okay, lets try this again. WE ALREADY DO THIS FOR WOMEN RIGHT NOW AS IT IS!!
Sorry for putting it in bold, but you dont seem to get it 
So now we’re down to name-calling.
Nice going
So if the establishment is already paying for two changing rooms, why not four?
So what do you propose? A special little dressing room in the corner that says ‘ONLY STRAIGHTS ALLOWED’? Or are gays allowed to use it to, if they manage to hide their ‘I’m a gayer’ tattoo from you?
You wouldnt have to pay for four, smartypants. You just divide the present men’s change room into two parts
No, you just divide change room into two parts, one is for the guys who are comfortable showering with gays, and the other for the ones who are not.
If you guys think I’m the only guy who isnt comfortable with this, you really need to get out more
I took your complaint to the Big Gay Cabal and they decided that you were right and have decreed that you should have the option to shower free from the prying eyes of others and for convenience’s sake they’ve attached your gay-free locker room to your personal bedroom. I know it looks like a bathroom but that’s just how great we are at decorating.
. . . so how do you propose keeping those nasty staring gays from sneaking into your hidey-hole?
Kenny Chesney played at earsplitting levels.