Planet Fitness Opens Can of Transgender Restroom Worms

Planet Fitness revoked a woman's membership after she complained about a transgender in the women's locker room.
Planet Fitness revoked a woman's membership after she complained about a transgender in the women's locker room. (Flickr)

Imagine walking into a women's locker room at your local gym and you see someone disrobing only to reveal they have male private parts. According to Planet Fitness, that's no problem at all, if the male sincerely thinks he is a female with male parts. 

Yvette Cormier had an experience like this in Midland, Michigan, and because she is NORMAL it bothered her. In her case the man was not naked, but clearly had access to see women without clothes. She complained to management, assuming that they would tell the man dressing like a woman that their ladies' locker room is not the place for him. But because the management is NUTS, "a gym employee notified her of the 'no judgment' policy, which allows members to use locker rooms based on their self-reported gender identity."[1] 

Ms. Cormier wanted other women to know a man was allowed to see them naked, so returned to her gym and informed other members. She was accused of making inappropriate comments about a transgender woman and her membership was cancelled. 

First of all, there is no such thing as a transgender woman, only people who are confused about their gender. Just so we are clear, the word transgender does not refer to one's sexual orientation or whether or not someone has had a sex-change (I mean, gender reassignment) operation. It refers to someone who may be male or female but his or her gender expression doesn't match his or her assigned sex. I feel for someone in such a predicament and we should do everything to help him or her. But telling them they are actually women does not help them, but leads to further confusion. 

"We are being bullied into accepting things that are untrue," says psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow. "I am not convinced by any science I can find that people with definitively male DNA and definitively male anatomy can actually be locked in a cruel joke of nature because they are actually female."[2]  

Ms. Cormier told CNN, "If you have male parts you don't need to be in the women's locker room. I don't care what you are; I don't care if you're gay, lesbian, transgender or transvestite. I am uncomfortable with you as a male in my locker room, in my restroom." 

CNN continued, "McCall Gosselin, director of public relations at Planet Fitness Corporate, provided this statement to Health in an email: 'Planet Fitness 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 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.'"[3] 

They are committed to creating a non-intimidating environment for whom? Certainly not for women! Imagine if your 15-year-old daughter went to this gym only to find herself alone in a locker room with a naked man who thinks he's a woman. How is that not horribly traumatizing for the young girl? But who cares about her? We have to protect middle-aged men dressing up as women. 

The man in the women's locker room was Carlotta Sklodowska. He responded to the hoopla by saying that "she understood why Cormier would see her body structure as masculine, because many people tell her she looks like a man." You look like a man because you are a man! That is like me saying, "I understand why people think I am white, because my skin is white." It is like my dog saying, "I see why people think I am a dog; I sniff other dogs' behinds, I bark and chase cats, but really I'm a seagull." 

To be clear, Mr. Sklodowska says he was only in the locker room to hang up his coat and purse, but still, there were most likely unclothed women in there who did not appreciate being seen by a man. 

"She added that she asked staff their policy towards transgender members, and was told, 'You use the locker room that corresponds with how you are dressed.'"[4] So, by this standard, any pervert can dress up like a woman and hang out all day looking at naked women, including teenaged girls. Of course, they request that you are sincere, but that is not a quality that most sexual predators possess. 

Ms. Cormier said she felt unsafe, but clearly she is just a mean-spirited bigot. Obviously I am being sarcastic, but that is exactly what Dr. Ablow warned. We are being bullied into accepting something that nature screams out to us is untrue and we are labeled as intolerant, mean-spirited or archaic bigots if we don't conform.

Every article I used to research for this blog was sympathetic to the transgender and referred to him as female. The media is scared, too, lest they say something that offends the LBGT mafia. 

Ms. Cormier wisely suggested to the gym that maybe they should have a separate area for people like Mr. Sklodowska—that would certainly be a safer alternative. But the mafia was quick to respond, saying that Sklodowska (the man) had a right to be in the women's locker room, and anyone who wanted more privacy could themselves choose to use the stalls provided by Planet Fitness, rather than segregating trans members.

God help us!

Ron Cantor is the director of Messiah's Mandate International in Israel, a Messianic ministry dedicated to taking the message of Jesus from Israel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Cantor also travels internationally teaching on the Jewish roots of the New Testament. He serves on the pastoral team of Tiferet Yeshua, a Hebrew-speaking congregation in Tel Aviv. His newest book is Identity Theft. Follow him at @RonSCantor on Twitter.


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