A recent incident at Planet Fitness saw stocks for the fitness franchise plummet in mid-March. Members of the massive company’s range of gyms are reconsidering that monthly cost on the heels of recent backlash, and it could present a major threat to the franchise’s future.
Planet Fitness currently serves as one of the largest fitness chains in the world, with more than 2,500 reported locations across the globe. Its stock valuation took a major plummet following a recent controversy, however, landing the company in hot water among its own user base. That’s due to a recent incident at one of the company’s gyms, which saw a woman’s membership revoked after she took a photo of person using the women’s locker room. When she took her photo evidence to staff to inquire after the person’s presence in what she labeled as the wrong locker room, she had her membership revoked for allegedly violating gym rules.
The issue of who uses which locker room has been a highly-publicized talking point for years now, as right-wing politicians and transphobic talking heads insist that women are being put at risk by allowing trans women into our spaces. Bigoted people accuse trans women of being unsafe, label them as men, and push a narrative that erases trans identity. The Alaska incident that prompted the current Planet Fitness backlash appears to fall into this same transphobic territory, but details are still emerging.
Gym user Patricia Silvia snapped a photo of a person sharing the Planet Fitness locker room with her and several other women, who was reportedly shaving and, when asked about why they were using the locker room, identified themselves as “queer LGB.” If this person was, in fact, a transgender woman, she was in the right space. If they were, as Silvia claimed, a man simply using the wrong locker room, they were invading a space intended for women.
The issue treads into unsteady territory here, as transgender women constantly face harassment simply for using the spaces that align with their gender identity, and no one deserves that. Unfortunately, some men have also seized the opportunity presented by trans-inclusive spaces to intrude on women-exclusive areas, and often use that moment as an attempt to discredit the trans-inclusive movement.
Silvia’s resulting removal from Planet Fitness’ list of members was due to a violation of the fitness giant’s rules, but many people see them as unfair. At base, it does appear that Silvia broke the chain’s locker room policy, but people are still torn whether that photograph should be deemed as harassment.
The locker room policy at Planet Fitness
Planet Fitness has a wonderfully inclusive locker room policy, but it isn’t airtight. Its efforts to ensure that trans people feel safe and welcome in the spaces that align with their gender identities are forward-thinking, but also allow space for malicious people to take advantage.
Many people believe that’s what happened with the recent incident involving Silvia. They’re drawing comparisons between the Planet Fitness situation and countless others in which people who identify as men use women’s spaces, posing as transgender women, in order to paint protections for trans women in a bad light, or to gain access to women and girls. There’s no confirmation that this is the case, however, and malicious, transphobic people have gleefully seized the opportunity to once again blast public spaces for being inclusive.
Regardless of whether or not the person Silvia photographed was, in fact, a transgender woman using the correct locker room, Silvia undeniably broke the Planet Fitness locker room policy. The fitness franchise clearly states that it “strictly prohibits the use of mobile devices to take photographs or videos or to make voice or video calls in the locker rooms.” Silvia did just that, in photographing someone in the locker room, and thus Planet Fitness had cause to revoke her membership.
The greater conversation won’t simmer down for a good while, and its unlikely to reach a truly satisfying conclusion. Transphobic people will, without fail, use situations like these to paint the trans-inclusive movement in a bad light, try to make trans women out to be dangerous, and attempt to force trans people to use the incorrect bathrooms based on their gender identity. Even if it does turn out to be an overreaction on the part of Planet Fitness, the franchise is doing its best to protect trans people, and we can’t put it at fault for that.