By Suzanne Bowdey
The Washington Stand
At Planet Fitness, you can exercise everything but your right to privacy. That’s the message customers are taking to heart after an Alaskan woman had her membership revoked for complaining about a naked man in the women’s locker room. The gym is a “no judgment zone,” Patricia Silva was told. Well, it’s about to become a profit-free zone too, thanks to angry Americans who are putting the company’s stock in a $400 million dollar freefall.
In a perfect snapshot of where corporate wokeness will lead these days, the media is reporting that within five days of Silva’s story hitting social media, Planet Fitness lost almost a half-billion dollars in value — crashing 7.8% in less than a week. “The company’s value dropped from $5.3 billion on March 14 to $4.9 billion on March 19,” reports show, “and its shares are down by 13.59 percent compared to a month ago.”
Despite the pushback, the business stubbornly stuck by the mixed-sex policy, insisting that it doesn’t matter if members felt uncomfortable. “This discomfort,” the company’s operational manual argues, “is not a reason to deny access to the transgender member.”
In a video she took from the Fairbanks location, Silva said, “I just came out of Planet Fitness. There is a man shaving in the women’s bathroom,” naked, viewers find out later after she posts a picture. “I love him in Christ,” she makes clear. “He is a spiritual being having a human experience. He doesn’t like his gender so he wants to be a woman, but I’m not comfortable with him shaving in my bathroom. I just thought I’d say it out loud.”
When Silva confronted the man in the restroom, he replied, “Well, I’m LGB…” She interrupted, “But you’re a man invading my space!” She ultimately walked away and went to the front desk. “‘Are you aware that there is a MAN shaving in the women’s bathroom?’” she asked. “‘ … I’m not OK with that.’ The two men standing at the desk, put their heads down and their tails between their legs!” Patricia recounted. “As I was walking out the door … at my back, a woman shouts, ‘It’s a girl!’… I shouted back, ‘It’s a man!’”
Silva was especially irate that a young girl, who “could have been 12 years old,” was exposed to the same nude man. She stood in the same room in a towel and “kind of freaked out.”
The next day, she posted on Facebook that she got a call from Planet Fitness “announcing that they have chosen to cancel my membership rather than protect you[ng] girls and women … that enter the women’s locker room from men with a penis. … Despicable.”
And yet, even now, flooded with complaints and nationwide criticism, the company stands by its decision, telling Libs of TikTok that the staff will “work with members and employees to address this discomfort [sharing facilities with transgender members] and to foster a climate of understanding consistent with the Judgment Free character of Planet Fitness.” Then, doubling down, the business vowed to continue calling trans-identifying customers by their preferred pronouns and “other terms consistent with their self-reported gender identity, if reasonably known to the Planet Fitness staff.”
None of this should come as a surprise, since the company has a long and unflattering past of siding with trans activists over women who feel victimized by their male presence. In 2015, Yvette Cormier, a member of a Michigan branch, had the exact same experience — well before the movement had risen to the public prominence it has now. “Freaked out,” she complained to the desk that there was a man in her restroom. She was shocked to find the on-duty staff taking his side. Stunned, she contacted Planet Fitness’s corporate office — where she heard more of the same. The gym, she was told, is a “no judgment zone” — but apparently not for everyone. When Yvette started warning women about the policy, Planet Fitness revoked her membership. “This is very scary,” she told reporters at the time. “I feel like it’s kind of one-sided. I feel like I’m the one who is being punished.” She sued.
In Leesburg, Florida six years ago, the same thing happened. “Mrs. H” confronted the man in her locker room and told him to leave. For more than an hour, he refused to go, watching every woman coming and going from his spot near the door. “Despite a male employee observing that Mr. Rice’s behavior was ‘over the top,’ staff did not intervene and ask him to finish his business, but permitted him to monopolize the women’s locker room.”
For Mrs. H, who’d survived an attempted rape, it was a traumatic experience to say the least. All she wanted was the privacy to change and shower — instead she got something else: a notice that her membership had been canceled. She took the gym to court.
Conservatives remember the company’s one-sided trans advocacy well. Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon thought back to those cases, pointing out, “Planet Fitness was an early adopter of insane policies that allow adult men in women’s locker rooms with women and children. And of course the policies changed with little notice to customers. When women complained,” she explained, “they were ignored or kicked out. Women need to stand up for ourselves, but we also need the men who love us to stand up for us as well. I am grateful that so many good men do. If it takes hurting them financially to make a difference, I’ll take that. But it’s cold comfort.”
For now, the wave of consumer activism that brought Bud Light, Target, RipCurl, and Doritos to their knees is in full force. And rightly so, the army of boycotters say. “The most offensive thing you can do to a woman is pretend she doesn’t exist,” Paul Szypula tweeted. “Because Planet Fitness has chosen this path their gym, will, ironically, soon not exist. The universe has a way of balancing things out.”
Libs of TikTok, who helped break Patricia’s story, is surprised CEOs need the warning at this point, but posted, “Turns out people don’t want to support companies who cave to gender pseudoscience and allow men in women’s private spaces! #BoycottPlanetFitness Do not let up! Keep it going!”
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
