Planet Fitness cancelled a woman’s membership after she complained about a transgender using the women’s locker room.
The gym’s corporate office told the woman, Midland, Mich., resident Yvette Cormier, that the transgender person in question identified as female and that members could use whatever locker room corresponded to their “personal gender identity.”
“Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use all gym facilities based on their sincere self-reported gender identity,” McCall Gosselin, public relations director for Planet Fitness, said in a statement. “The manner in which this member expressed her concerns about the policy exhibited behavior that management at the Midland club deemed inappropriate and disruptive to other members, which is a violation of the membership agreement and as a result her membership was cancelled.”
Cormier said the incident began on Feb. 28 when she was startled by the transgender person in the woman’s locker room.
“I was blocked, because a man was standing there,” Cormier said. “It freaked me out because, why is a man in here?”
She also said an employee told her that the individual identifies as a woman.
After Cormier told other female members about the transgender person, she received a call from the corporate headquarters claiming she was violating the gym’s “no judgment” policy and asked her if she would stop talking to the other women about the incident, to which she declined.
That’s when the corporate representative told her she was banned.
“I feel it’s kind of one sided,” Cormier said, adding that Planet Fitness should offer separate accommodations for transgender people. “I feel like I am the one who is being punished.”
A similar incident occurred in 2013 when female students at Florence High School in Colorado were threatened with hate crime charges after they complained about being harassed by a transgender in the girls’ bathroom.
School officials firmly sided with the transgender student and they even suggested the girls give up access to most of their restrooms altogether, reported CBN News.
In response, the Pacific Justice Institute sent a letter to the school warning them against placing transgender rights over the privacy of female students.
“We’re not going to stand by and let 99.7% of our students lose their privacy and free speech rights just because 0.3% of the population are gender-confused,” the letter stated.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!