A Planet Fitness member who was kicked out for complaining about a transgender woman shaving in the women’s locker room claimed the person now has a staff escort to the bathrooms.
Patricia Silva was banned from a gym in Alaska after she detailed an incident in which she said she saw a transgender woman in her locker room.
The gym doubled down on its decision, saying that while some members may feel uncomfortable sharing facilities, “this discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender member.”
The backlash against the ban caused the company’s valuation to plummet by $400 million in five days.
Silva said The New York Post the ‘trans woman’ still wears the female locker room and is assisted by the staff while she is there.
“He has an employee who is helping him in the bathroom,” Silva said. “My friend told the Planet Fitness representative he was accompanying him that he had to leave.”
Patricia Silva, who was kicked out of Planet Fitness after posting about a trans woman using the women’s locker room, said that person now receives an escort to the bathrooms from an employee.
Silva said the employee who told her friend complained that the person was still using the women’s locker room “if you feel uncomfortable you can go to a cubicle.”
According to Silva, the employee, “he told my friend that if you don’t feel comfortable you can go to a cubicle.”
“Another friend of mine went to that gym the other day and he was there shaving his face again,” he said.
‘He is dressed like a man. His hair is short. He looked like he was dressed, shaving his face and getting ready to go out for the day.
Silva posted a video describing his gym experience on Facebook in early March.
He said he had just finished working out at the Planet Fitness location in Fairbanks when he saw the person, whom he called “a man with a penis,” performing his routine in front of a 12-year-old girl.
Silva, who previously ran for the Fairbanks County Assembly, told the ‘trans woman’ that they should really wear the men’s locker room. The trans woman responded that they were ‘LGB’.
Silva then took a photo of the person, shared it online and recounted his experience in a Facebook video: ‘I just left Planet Fitness.
‘There’s a man shaving in the women’s bathroom. I love him in Christ. He is a spiritual being who has 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.
Silva, who has shared QAnon conspiracy theories on social media, also described the encounter in a written online post.
‘I went to Planet Fitness… I walked into the bathroom and there was a MAN shaving… I looked at him, said ‘hey’… he looked up… and I said, ‘You’re a man shaving in the bathroom of women, and I don’t agree with that.’
‘He replied… ‘Well, I’m LGB…’
‘Whatever it is… however, I told him ‘You’re a MAN and you’re invading my space!’
‘I wanted to argue to justify why it can be there… I walked away…
“I walked out of the locker room and asked out loud to the front desk, ‘Are you aware that there is a MAN shaving in the women’s bathroom? I don’t agree with that.'” The two men standing at the desk bowed their heads. “Head down and with his tail between his legs! As I was walking out the door… behind me, a woman shouts ‘it’s a girl’… I shouted at her ‘it’s a man!’
Patricia Silva, a former Planet Fitness gym goer, defended her reaction in a series of Facebook posts.
“PF canceled my membership and allowed the fart to stay ” he stated.
Planet Fitness, headed by CEO Craig Benson, revoked Silva’s membership and filed a police report against him, citing his violation of gym policy by taking photos and/or videos in the locker room.
His actions clashed with the gym’s commitment to “creating an inclusive and safe environment.”
The Planet Fitness statement shared by TikTok’s Libs followed the same line. They doubled down on their decision.
In its statement, the gym said staff should “work with members and employees to address this discomfort (sharing facilities with transgender members) and foster a climate of understanding consistent with Planet Fitness’s judgment-free ethos.”
The statement continues: “Planet Fitness staff will endeavor to address transgender members with names, titles, pronouns and other terms consistent with their self-reported gender identity, if reasonably known to Planet Fitness staff.”
The statement said that “a transgender woman will be referred to by her preferred name and female pronouns.”
And “a transgender man will be referred to by his preferred name and male pronouns.”
It concluded that the gym “reserves the right to immediately terminate a person’s membership for any violation of this policy.”
When DailyMail.com contacted Planet Fitness about their policy, they reiterated their statement issued after Silva went viral.
‘As home to the Judgment Free Zone, Planet Fitness is committed to creating an inclusive environment. Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their honest, self-reported gender identity,” she reads.
“The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of people in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being canceled.”
Yvette Cormier, a Michigan woman who had her Planet Fitness membership canceled nine years ago, told DailyMail.com on Thursday that she saw many parallels between her case and that of Patricia Silva.
He offered his support to Silva and joined conservative calls for a boycott, as he did in 2015 when he complained about seeing a transgender woman in the women’s locker room in Midland.
Craig Benson, CEO of Planet Fitness
The gym said that although some members may feel uncomfortable sharing facilities, “this discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender member.”
Reactions against the ban say that the company’s valuation will plummet by $400 million in five days
Cormier sued Planet Fitness for invasion of privacy, sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract and emotional distress.
Silva lost, but an appeals court found the gym violated the Consumer Protection Act by failing to properly inform members that transgender women would be allowed to use the women’s bathroom, the Detroit Free Press reported in 2018.
“That’s the purpose of having a men’s and women’s locker room, that the men go into the men’s locker room and the women go into the women’s locker room,” Cormier told DailyMail.com.
“I suggested from the beginning to have a unisex bathroom, and then people who are transitioning or whatever, could use that bathroom.”
In her case, she said, the person in question, who was never identified, was not transgender. She claimed he was a “perverted” man who had a history of harassing women in the city.
“He liked women and that was his way of getting there,” Cormier said. “He was crazy and harassed women. He got kicked out of our mall for harassing a woman in a jewelry store, and he also approached roller derby girls asking them to have sex.
“I’m surprised they haven’t raped other people or abused children,” he continued. “That’s what will continue to happen eventually if you continue to allow this.”