Gym on transgender-friendly locker rooms: Love them or leave

A Michigan woman last month was changing clothes at a Planet Fitness gym when she saw a man in the locker room. She immediately reported it to the front desk.

That’s when she learned of the gym’s policy that customers could use whichever locker room they want based on the gender with which they identify. She was told the man in the locker room identified as a woman, so there was no problem.

But Yvette Cormier felt differently, and she began to warn other patrons that a man could enter the ladies’ locker room. Shortly thereafter, Planet Fitness revoked her gym membership, saying she was disruptive and had violated its “no-judgment policy.”

Laurie Higgins, a cultural analyst for Illinois Family Institute, said Planet Fitness’ policy had significant safety problems.

“They’re saying that bathrooms will no longer correspond to biological sex. They will correspond to gender identity, which is what you wish you were. And that puts at risk the safety and privacy of women, including girls as young as 13, because they allow members between the ages of 13 to 15,” Higgins said.

Some say society needs to be more tolerant of those who suffer from gender dysphoria, the feeling they were born with the wrong biology.

Higgins said while compassion is necessary, “It is not OK to violate the rights of women in order to accommodate dysfunctional behavior.” The man in the locker room was a transgendered man, but that was not apparent to Cormier.

“No 16-year-old girl changing her clothes, changing from her work or school clothes into workout clothes, should have to fear that a man is going to come in and see her naked,” Higgins said.

Some have suggested businesses construct enclosed changing rooms so that anyone who wants privacy can have it.

“Instead of saying that ‘We are going to have to be the ones that will be inconvenienced because we’re the ones that have this apparently very profound disorder,’ they want to inconvenience everyone else in society, every business, and have everyone else accommodate what is a sexual disorder,” Higgins said.

Higgins said the “no judgment policy” is itself a judgment: “What they are really saying is, ‘biological sex no longer matters’. That’s a judgment call.”

Listen to Mary Reichard’s report on Planet Fitness’ “no-judgment policy” on The World and Everything in It.