Culture,  News

An exercise club allows men into women’s locker rooms, and vice versa

This is one that you will likely have to see to believe. So I encourage you to watch the video above.

In short, here’s what the report says. Yvette Cormier was in the dressing room at her exercise club “Planet Fitness” last month when she saw a man enter the women’s locker room. Cormier was unsettled about this, so she immediately informed management. After hearing her concerns, Planet Fitness explained that the man is transgender and identifies as a woman. They told her that Planet Fitness allows any man who sincerely self-identifies as a woman to make use of the women’s locker room.

This response did little to settle Cormier’s concerns, which she began to share with other members of the club. So Planet Fitness took decisive action. They kicked Cormier out of the club. They revoked her membership saying that she violated Planet Fitness’s “no-judgment zone” policy.

In a subsequent interview, Cormier said she didn’t wish to insult transgender people but that she felt unsafe having to dress in the presence of a person of the opposite sex. In her own words:

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.

Cormier’s concerns highlight the inconsistencies of the transgender revolution that is unfolding in places of public accommodation. How does Planet Fitness know the difference between a man who “sincerely” identifies as a woman and a man who pretends to identify as a woman. Certainly, being able to tell the difference is beyond the competency of an athletic club. Nevertheless, they are asking every female member to trust the “sincerity” of strangers who wish to enter the women’s dressing room. Is there anyone who can’t see the insanity of that proposition?

Another problem with the transgender policy is that many people don’t know what transgender is. A transgender person is someone who embraces a gender identity that does not correspond to their biological sex. Being transgender says nothing about that person’s sexuality. There are plenty of men who embrace a female gender identity but who nevertheless remain attracted to the opposite sex. In other words, the man in the dressing room may genuinely fit someone’s definition of transgender. But he may also be sexually attracted to women. That means that Cormier’s concern is not necessarily mitigated by the sincerity of transgender identity.

This situation reveals at least two important things. First, transgenderism requires accommodations that contradict common sense. Nevertheless, those forcing this change appear to feel no obligation to address the legitimate concerns of people like Yvette Cormier. The Cormier’s of the world either have to get with the program or get steamrolled.

Second, it is not altogether clear that the general public understands the implications of embracing the LGBT revolution. Once the practicalities of the new arrangement become clear, we may see more backlash against it than we have seen until now. Indeed, many female members at this particular Planet Fitness have dropped their membership now that men are allowed into the women’s locker room (see below).

In any case, we have hardly begun to imagine all that will be coming down the pike with transgenderism. But we can be sure that this conflict at an athletic club is just the beginning.

20 Comments

  • Sandra Stewart

    Carlotta Sklodowska, a transgender woman who believes it was her visit to the gym that triggered the complaint. She is not a member of the Midland Planet Fitness, but went as the guest of a friend. Sklodowska said she only entered the locker room twice, wearing leggings and a baggy T-shirt to hang up her jacket and never observed anyone troubled by her presence.
    Yvette Cormier returned four days in a row and “warned other members”, after finding out what Planet Fitness non judgement policy is by calling corporate.
    This harkens to the number of bathroom bills cropping up in various states. There has NEVER been and example in the US where a woman has been attacked by a transgender individual, they just wants to Pee.

    • Mike Stephan

      So with a population over 320 million and with sexual assault being one of the most under reported crimes in the USA, you confidently state a woman has “never” (in all caps no less, I applaud you boldness) been attacked by a transgender individual. Pardon me if I fail to believe your supposed omniscience on the subject.

  • ian Shaw

    Planet Fitness is already experiencing drops in women membership. They’ll have to make a statement or build additional locker rooms to accommodate another gender type if they want to keep women members there.

    It’s not about whether an assault did happen or could happen, it’s a perceived threat or how women feel (comfortable) in that situation. The potential exists because transgender is only defined by self-identification, isn’t it?

    It would be flippant to say that society is reaping what it has sowed, but the pieces of the puzzle are connecting oddly enough.

  • Drew

    Soooo the transgendered guy/gal is allowed to “sincerely identify” (another term for “feel”) a certain way, and is granted tolerance and access, but a woman is NOT allowed to sincerely identify/feel her way (as feeling uncomfortable) about the situation and is thus not tolerated and kicked out. The “man” doesn’t have to deal with his biology if he feels differently, but the woman is forced to deal with social politics regardless of her feelings. Yeah, all this makes perfect sense. Absolutely. And whoever disagrees, I get to call a bigot and sue.

  • Daryl Little

    How do they call this guy a woman with a straight face? Seriously, it’s ridiculous that this even made it to the news.

    But to the false statement that assault in this kind of a situation has never happened…

    Toronto 2012 – https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sexual-predator-jailed-after-claiming-to-be-transgender-in-order-to-assault

    Palmdale California 2013 – http://ktla.com/2013/05/14/da-cross-dressing-man-secretly-videotaped-women-in-macys-bathroom/#ixzz2TKsMicgJ

    Question is, how can anyone tell, by looking at a guy dressed as a girl, if he’s “sincere” or just a perv. And does it matter?

    Use the family washroom if you must.

    • Christiane Smith

      DARYL, a lot of people don’t laugh at those who identify as ‘transgender’. Outside of your circle, there are many others who are concerned for them and have compassion for them as human beings who are struggling with something they themselves didn’t choose.

      Did you ever think that maybe God tests us to measure our reaction to the pain of others? Or if we can find any room in our own comfort zone for people who are strange to our ways? Not everyone born into this world is ‘perfect’ physically. And the suffering of these people is real. Try to re-think your sentence from the point of view of someone who have been asked to have a care for suffering in this world and respond to it in Christ’s holy name. How do Christian people relate to those who are ‘different’? Not very well from the evidence on blogs. I hope we can do better by those who are carrying such heavy burdens in their lives. We owe that to the One Who carried a cross on His Shoulders for our sake, if nothing more. God Bless.

      • Rob Gates

        Christine, speaking as a father of two adult daughters and one teenage daughter, I do not want a man in a dressing room with them. PERIOD! I don’t care if that man “self-identifies” as a woman, a giraffe, or a Toyota pickup truck, my daughter’s safety and comfort to be in a room with ONLY other women is of paramount importance to me as their father. For me, this is NOT an issue of compassion, but of common sense (which seems to be entirely lost by this gym). Compassion for those who struggle with any sin does not preclude losing our ability to think with clear and biblical common sense. In this case we need both compassion AND common sense! While Facebook may have over fifty ways by which people identify their gender, God still has only two: Male and Female. Males don’t belong in female dressing rooms.

      • Chris Ryan

        Yes, the truest Christian impulse is to sympathize with these folks. We really know nothing about what causes transgender feelings. Its entirely possible that its rooted in something biological. Mental illness is a real thing, oftentimes based in damage or ‘mis-wiring’ of the brain. If we have intersex children is it so hard to believe that we might have children whose neurological or hormonal systems have been compromised? So we should pray for these people. For all we know that may one day be our children–or even us (taking a look at Bruce Jenner).

  • Paul Reed

    As Christians, we may be able to piggyback our cause against the transgendered on the back of Concern for Women’s Safety, but I don’t think it will hold up for long. All it takes is for enough women to say, “I don’t feel threatened by the transgendered — you’re just trying to legitimatize your bigotry”. We need to state how God make us distinctively man and woman. People will respond to the Truth if we give it to them.

    • Christiane Smith

      The One Who is ‘the Truth’ commands us to help bear one another’s burdens. And I don’t think there is an ” our cause against the transgendered” among Christian people, PAUL.
      Not ‘against’, no . . . and if we have a cause to do with our transgendered people, then let it be a cause that reflects how Our Lord Himself cared for broken people. There is no One else you can go to for how Christians are to do this but to the Great Physician.

      • Brett Cody

        Christiane,
        While I understand your deep concern for those struggling with gender dysphoria, Paul has made a great point. Why are you trying to swing the pendulum all the way to accommodation when there is a clear call to truth over against the feelings of the afflicted and broken?
        Further, why are you so quick to trust the feelings of the transgendered over the truth of the scriptures?
        Not to split hairs, but it was Paul who talks about bearing one another’s burdens and a few verses following he argues “each will have to bear his own load.” (Galatians 6:1-5) Yes, it is the Word of God–I just wanted to clarify because you worded it as if it came from Christ and was from the Gospels.
        Burdens and loads must be different things. The context is referring to the restoration of sinners who are “caught in any transgression.” The burden we must bear for each other is not accomplished through accommodation but through a gentle spirit of accountability. This also implies that those involved on both sides are believers in Christ who desire to die to self, take up their cross and follow Christ–their cross is their own load.

        • Christiane Smith

          Hi BRETT,
          thank you for your kind response and the explanation you have shared with me.
          You asked why I ‘was trying to swing the pendulum’ and I thought about that for a while. Hopefully, these words of St. Ambrose will help put light on where I was coming from:

          ““ . . . he who endeavours to amend the faults of human weakness ought to bear this very weakness on his own shoulders, let it weigh upon himself, not cast it off. For we read that the Shepherd in the Gospel (Luke 15:5) carried the weary sheep, and did not cast it off. And Solomon says: “Be not overmuch righteous;” (Ecclesiastes 7:17) for restraint should temper righteousness. For how shall he offer himself to you for healing whom you despise, who thinks that he will be an object of contempt, not of compassion, to his physician?
          Therefore had the Lord Jesus compassion upon us in order to call us to Himself, not frighten us away. He came in meekness, He came in humility, and so He said: “Come unto Me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” (Matthew 11:28) So, then, the Lord Jesus refreshes, and does not shut out nor cast off, and fitly chose such disciples as should be interpreters of the Lord’s will, as should gather together and not drive away the people of God. Whence it is clear that they are not to be counted among the disciples of Christ, who think that harsh and proud opinions should be followed rather than such as are gentle and meek; persons who, while they themselves seek God’s mercy, deny it to others . . . ”

          St. Ambrose (340-397 A.D.)

  • Jonathan Bee

    Since Christians allow genders to swap roles and di other sins under “sacrficial servant leadership” why not see this is one as well!!
    Servant leadership , looking after the confused…
    Christians and hypocrisy…

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