Thanks everyone for the valuable advice! I do want to come out eventually to family and close friends, but I realize now that it is silly of me to think that I have the obligation to come out in this situation. I will wait until I feel I am ready (hopefully rather sooner than later, although I've always been a bit of a coward so who knows), and I'll expect them to be respectful of me as I am of them.
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Good heaven's of course you can go to the gym with straight guys. Just behave normally. Try not to spring a full boner in the change room when they flaunt their junk in your face.
And as others have said....if they are really your friends....and the time is right over drinks or a meal sometime...you can let them know that you are interested in guys and would blow them all. No wait. strike that last bit....that you are still looking for the right guy out there.
If they are really your buds...they'll be cool. If they are afraid of their own possible same sex desires...they might be a little weird the next time you are together in the locker room. To get over that, casually drop your own trou first and make it clear that you aren't perving on them or anything.
Unless you can't suppress a rock hard erection.
In that case grab a towel and pull the fire alarm.
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