A Michigan woman’s Planet Fitness membership was revoked after she complained about a transgender person in the women’s locker room. Yvette Cormier, a 48, said she was walking into the Midland Planet Fitness locker room last Saturday when she saw someone “dressed like a man.”
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The Michigan woman lost her Planet Fitness membership over the “inappropriate” manner in which she complained about a transgender woman in the locker room, a gym spokeswoman said.
Yvette Cormier’s membership was not canceled for simply raising the issue, “as we welcome all feedback from our members,” said McCall Gosselin, director of public relations at Planet Fitness Corporate. Rather, it was the manner in which she expressed her concerns that club management felt was inappropriate, resulting in the cancellation, Gosselin said. Cormier stands by her actions in a case that has drawn attention to transgender rights.
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The person was wearing a wig and “a little bit of blush,” but was “huge” and appeared “very manly,” Cormier told ABC News today.
“I just stopped right there in my tracks,” she said. “It was a man for sure.”
Cormier, who had been a Planet Fitness member for two months, said she went to the front desk immediately. The man at the desk told her that Planet Fitness policy is “whatever gender you feel you are, that’s the locker room you’re allowed to go in,” she said.
“And then he said, ‘We’ve had lots of complaints about him but we told him to go change in a stall,'” Cormier said.
“He said, ‘if you’re uncomfortable with that you can wait until he’s done in there,'” she said. “I stood back and said, ‘How about he waits until I’m done in the women’s locker room. Or get a unisex bathroom.’ He asked if I would like to talk to the manager and I said, ‘I’m calling corporate.'”
When she called the corporate offices, she said, someone there confirmed that the person at the front desk was correct about Planet Fitness policies.
“I wouldn’t have signed up for this gym if I knew that ahead of time,” Cormier said, adding that the gym is “failing to protect me if anything happens in those locker rooms with a man.”
She said she went back to the gym the next few days and “told everyone in the locker room what happened.” She said everyone she talked to “was appalled.”
On Thursday, Cormier said, Planet Fitness Corporate called and revoked her membership immediately.
“They said, ‘You are talking to people about him in the women’s locker room. You are making people upset.’ That’s my whole point,” she said. “I’m telling them and warning them because you are not doing that. You allow men in there, and we are appalled by it.”
Planet Fitness Director of Public Relations McCall Gosselin said the gym is “committed to creating a non-intimidating, welcoming environment for our members. Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use all gym facilities based on their sincere self-reported gender identity.”
The statement continued, “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.”
Gosselin added, “As our statement outlines, her membership was not cancelled as a result of complaints about our policy, as we welcome all feedback from our members. Rather, it was the manner in which her concerns were expressed that club management felt was inappropriate, which resulted in the cancellation.”
via ABC News
