A major national fitness chain's stock value plummeted after Americans took issue with how it handled its transgender locker room policy.
Planet Fitness saw a $400 million dive in valuation from $5.3 billion to $4.9 billion just days after a Fairbanks, Alaska branch revoked a woman's membership for taking photo evidence of a male using the women's locker room.
Patricia Silva posted a video on Facebook to "bring awareness to her community" because she was shocked to find a man in the women's bathroom at Planet Fitness.
"I just came out of Planet Fitness. There is a man shaving in the women's bathroom," Silva shares in the video.
She contends in the video that there was "a little girl sitting in the corner. She could have been [12 years old] … in a towel kind of freaked out."
EXCLUSIVE: New details emerge in my conversation with Patricia Silva, the woman whose membership @PlanetFitness revoked after she exposed a man shaving in the women’s bathroom.
While she is punished for standing up for women, Planet Fitness is continuing to allow men to enter… pic.twitter.com/AXUEkB9cQV
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 21, 2024
"I felt intimidated," Silva shared in an interview with Libs of TikTok on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Silva did confront the man who said he was "queer" and took a picture of him.
"I love him in Christ," she makes clear in the video. "He is a spiritual being having 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."
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Silvia told management about the incident and 24 hours later she learned her membership was revoked for violating the rules against photographing other gym users.
"They have chosen to cancel my membership rather than protect girls and women … that enter the women's locker room from men with a penis. … Despicable," she expressed.
Planet Fitness chief corporate affairs officer McCall Gosselin told Fox News members can use the locker room that corresponds with their gender identity.
"As the home of the Judgement Free Zone, Planet Fitness is committed to creating an inclusive environment," he said in the statement.
"Our gender identity non-discrimination policy, states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity. The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being terminated," Gosselin added.
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Prominent individuals have criticized Planet Fitness on social media for how they handled the situation.
Elon Musk called the chain out for caring more about transgender ideology than keeping women safe.
"Planet Fitness sounds like a creepy place," he wrote on X.
Robby Starbuck, a producer and political commentator wrote, "It looks like letting men into the women's locker room where they can spy on them while they change (including underage girls) is NOT super popular!"
"This pain will continue until you stop letting men into women's spaces," Starbuck added. "#BoycottPlanetFitness."
Meanwhile, a Planet Fitness employee sent an internal email to Libs of TikTok revealing that the company's bathroom policy does not "require any form of ID for men to enter the women's bathroom and anyone can use whichever bathroom they wish."
BREAKING: An insider within Planet Fitness sent us this image of a course that new hires are required to take.
Planet Fitness confirms that their bathroom policy does not require any form of ID for men to enter the women's bathroom and anyone can use whichever bathroom they… pic.twitter.com/SzU6Zjk93F
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 25, 2024
According to Newsweek, a man allegedly exposed himself in 2023 to a 15-year-old in a women's locker room at Planet Fitness in Monroe, Georgia.
He was later arrested and faced "multiple warrants for public indecency by exposing himself in the female locker room," the local police department stated.
In another incident, a woman in New Jersey claims she was banned from Planet Fitness in 2022 for refusing to call a trans-identifying woman by the correct pronoun.
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