Opinion by Matt Marquardt –
I quit going to the YMCA a long, long time ago due to the weird behavior in the YMCA men’s locker room.
Then, as most all of us know, a group of men were caught in 2012 performing what you might call “intimate behavior” in that locker room, and it was said that young eyes may have witnessed it. The YMCA leadership promised that the locker room would be policed and cleaned up and made safe for children – since, you know, they go in there just like adults do.
Well, now it’s come to my attention that the men’s locker room is basically just like it has always been. No, I didn’t go in there. I don’t own a physohex so I didn’t feel like it was a safe move. Then how do I know? Because it continues to be a running joke all over town, talked about here and there. It’s still going on, and it’s being talked about right now, today.
What’s still going on at the YMCA, you ask?
Apparently, the old man naked jumping jacks. The old man 100% naked shaving in front of the sinks. The old man walking around stark naked for no good reason other than to show off his junk. The close-talkers who get in your personal space – stark naked, no towel, no anything. If you’ve been in the Mason City YMCA locker rooms, you know what I’m talking about.
Seriously, no one wants to write about this nonsense, but after all these years, it’s still going on, and there are kids in these locker rooms? Not to mention adults who find it pretty much gross.
I did call the YMCA this morning and asked director Liz Conley about it. She was more or less clueless about the situation and claimed she hadn’t heard the stories that still whisper all over town. She said “we put-up signs” apparently to remind men to … use discretion, or something along those lines.
Well, Liz, I heard about your locker rooms last week sitting in a restaurant, when a gentleman brought it up to my buddy, who said the last time he saw my friend was at the Y. I won’t repeat the words this man used because they are offensive to some people. That got my radar up about this on-going situation. Then I read all about it today on social media, and boy, did people chime in.
It’s too much to ignore.
Please, Mason City YMCA, get your locker room under control. If you can’t, simply shut it down. You are embarrassing to a town that is getting full of embarrassments.
How about the affair going on with Darla and Scott Sweeny. They hook up at the Y and work at the Y. Apparently anything that has no discretion is welcome at the Y!!
I heard she has a history of messing on husbands. Acts innocent.
My very own fan!
“Then how do I know? Because it continues to be a running joke all over town, talked about here and there. It’s still going on, and it’s being talked about right now, today.”
The running joke is that someone who purports to be a journalist uses this as a basis for a story. I was originally going to say “someone who considers himself to be a journalist”, but I don’t think Matt seriously believes that’s what he is.
So, people are naked in a locker room, big deal. I wear a towel and…
With all the gays out there today, the locker room at the Y is a good place for those fellers to go scope out male genitalia. They have been doing that for years.
Then you add the exhibitionists that love to parade their junk around, it makes the men’s locker-room a convenient place to go display themselves.
This day and age I would wear Gym shorts. Sure wouldn’t want to get them fellers all worked up.
Your comment is incredibly ignorant and homophobic. Studies have shown that homophobia is good indicator that someone is a closeted homosexual.
Only a gay man would make a comment like this.
And your comment would suggest that you’re one of the closeted homosexuals.
Hey, if you want to “slap ham” with the boys in secret, that’s fine.
Just don’t be a hypocrite about it.
Must have hit a nerve here suggesting you were closeted…LOL.
I feel sorry for you homophobes
hey lefty, there you go calling people homophobes, whatever that means. Homophobes sounds like a rummy moniker you nut cases use when you can’t defend the indefensible.
No matter how you package that gay crap, it ain’t natural.
Now I am thinking you are one of those that hang around the y locker room.
Keep proving my point @watchdog
Again, this is just what the this rag called NIT wants. A bunch of drama online over a hearsay article on Mason City. No one hates Mason City more than Matt Marquardt. No one wants to see it fail more than him. Stirring up homophobia in MC will make it fail. You want everyone to feel welcome in your town, not just people like watchdog. A good mix of people is the spice of life. It’s what makes life interesting. This website breeds hate and ignorance.
no way gay here but o lefty just comes across as one. Sorry, he just sounds like one.
I go to the Y 5 days a week and I do not witness any of the things of which you mentioned. ( Matt )
Apparently you haven’t witnessed them either but you had to call Liz ?? Really – Typical small town B.S.
Grow up. It is up to the Y members to help report /police offensive behavior. Yes there are still jokes going around about the past that casts something on the situation but your pitiful comments just attract more flies.
I witnessed these goings-on then, and local people – folks with good jobs, houses, no criminal records – witnessed them as recently as Thursday. These people are not fools; they would not lie about it, and I am certain they would repeat their stories anytime if asked, just as they are currently telling the world via social media. What’s truly despicable is someone like you would want to brush this situation under the rug, to help keep these sick scenarios playing out. Perhaps you are one of the sickos laying on the benches in the men’s locker room doing naked sit-ups? And yes, you are dam right, I called the Y and asked the director about it, because that’s what I do. I get to the bottom of things. And this is one thing that needs to get rooted out. The Y should close down its locker room permanently, in my opinion.
@Matt-I would agree. Close it or separate it.
Brown nose.
Just for the record I am not a ” sicko ” . I question what you say is happening . You believe your witnesses . You witnesses appear to be concerned . I guess I might be too if I was them . In my estimation however they are the ones sweeping it under the rug. The Y cannot have multiple employees stationed inside the locker rooms. It is up to the members as I said before to report to management offensive behavior. If the situation needs to improve it will take the courage of its members .
Isn’t it nice that the editor of this piece of shit rag writes an article based purely on hearsay? Then someone calls him out on it so he calls them a sicko. Matt, you’ll never be respected in MC. Your only goal is to get clicks on this garbage website by writing sensationalist, non-news. Such a joke, and the prime example of what is wrong with MC.
Countdown to your and this comment being deleted begins.
LVS or one of the other NIT lackeys will go crying to the site owner for you telling the truth.
This site is not about truth, just innuendo, gossip and outright falsehoods that are encouraged by the site owner and perpetuated by his minions.
This site had great potential at first, but has pretty much gone down the toilet.
@Anonymous-If you don’t like the site stay the hell off it. You have been trolling around on this site for years and you never offer anything except attacking Matt and other people. If I was Matt I would ban you in a heartbeat. You serve no useful purpose other than being a bottom feeder.
I disagree with your statement 100%. The Y needs to police that locker room. It needs to close it down. The Y already admitted in 2012 these shenanigans were going on; arrests were made; wrists were slapped. It is clear that something devious continues there; that much I have no doubt about. The management and the Y itself have failed to make the Y a safe place. Kids are in there. They are asking for way bigger problems if that locker room stays open. There’s really no good reason to keep the locker room open. DRIVE HOME AND SHOWER. Only people like LeftMC who seem to enjoy the entertainment want it LeftOpen.
Look at this scum calling me out on his own website. Your garbage is why Mason City is failing. It’s why people are fleeing that town and why the meth heads are flocking. The low IQ folks love your sensationalist “journalism”. You keep it dumb and unwelcoming there in MC Matt, you keep it dumb.
It’s also hilarious how you’re all “I don’t repeat those words because they’re offensive” in the original article,
Yet you seem to be relishing in the homophobic comments here on your garbage website. The hypocrisy is strong and characteristic of someone who is reaching for attention. Someone who is trying to squeeze every last dime out of a failing, sensationalist, non news rag.
Parable . I witnessed a purse snatching and followed the perpetrator to their home. I was so appalled I told everyone in my work place. But nobody told the police. The end. Get it ?
. It is that simple or should we close down Mason City or put a cop every 200 feet. ?
You’re a man and offended by some guy walking around in a MENS locker room with his junk hanging out?! SMH! Stay home ya wuss. Maybe they’re comfortable in their skin. Maybe their parents didn’t hide their body in shame. It’s only SKIN. Get over yourself. They don’t want you. They already know you taste nasty. And you’re using 3 yr. old crap to post psycho babble. What’s sick is your editorial. Must be a slow news day. No trash filled WalMart parking lot to report on?
I think Matt’s obsession with this is telling. Not in any sexual sense, but in a sick, small town, voyeuristic, and gossipy sense.
Well put, Holenwon.
It’s a locker room, there are going to be dicks around. If you’re so homophobic and uncomfortable with the fact that all men have a penis and it might be visible in a locker room, then you’re probably best off not going. Now if there is truly inappropriate behavior happening then that’s another thing entirely. But there is no proof of that in this ridiculous attention grab of a story here on NIT.
@Lefty-once again I must agree with you. I don’t know about this “Y” but I used to frequent the old one a lot. And, no one though a thing about standing in front a a sink naked, or taking a steam bath or the hot tub naked. That is the way it was done before all this P.C. stuff. The worse thing they ever did was to build the new “Y” the way they did. The kids should be separate from adaults and the low life’s should not be allowed in. Let the state build them a gym of their own.
Agreed, LeftMC.
This is truly an insight into Matt more than anything else.
Matt this weird stuff will never stop at the Y. Its not only the old men but the people they let in for free (BG Clark, and Prairie Ridge) drunks, druggies, rapist, and spouse beaters they all get in free of charge. Then they want us tax paying good people to pay their high rates when we already pay for these worthless low lives. Sorry if I offend some of you that are truly in these places to get help. It just pisses me off!!!!
The folks that got arrested a year or so ago were “tax paying good people pay[ing] their high rates.”
In other words, folks just like yourself, right?
None of them were “drunks, druggies, rapist, and spouse beaters”.
What’s up with that USMC?