How an inclusive gym brand became a battlefield over LGBTQ rights

[mahatmakanejeeves]

How an inclusive gym brand became a battlefield over LGBTQ rights

At least 54 threats have been received by Planet Fitness locations following attacks by far-right influencer Chaya Raichik

By Taylor Lorenz and Gus Garcia-Roberts
April 28, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. EDT



John Hart-Battles,17, is growing up in Oklahoma, a state increasingly impacted by Libs of TikTok, the anti-LGBTQ social media account. (Michael Noble, Jr. for The Washington Post)

John Hart-Battles, a 17-year-old high school junior in Oklahoma, joined Planet Fitness last June to keep in shape as a member of his school’s color guard team. As a young gay man, he liked Planet Fitness’s focus on inclusivity, an approach that turned it into one of the leading fitness brands in the United States. He started going twice a week. … But for the past few weeks, he, like many LGBTQ Planet Fitness patrons and staffers, has stayed away, as at least 54 bomb threats have been made to Planet Fitness locations across the country, many of which led to evacuations. “It’s one of my worst fears, to be hate crimed, specifically in a locker room,” said Hart-Battles, who called the attacks on Planet Fitness “very unsettling.”

Local police and the FBI say they have yet to determine who is behind the threats, which in some instances have forced the evacuation, police say, not just of Planet Fitness locations but of businesses nearby. … But the pattern is familiar to LGBTQ activists, who link the wave of threats to the far-right influencer Chaya Raichik, who runs the social media account @libsoftiktok. She has made Planet Fitness the object of critical posts since early March when Planet Fitness revoked the membership of a woman in Alaska who complained about “a man shaving in a women’s bathroom” and posted a photo of the person online.

Though the threats and evacuations have directly affected only a relative few of the chain’s 2,600 locations in the United States, the attacks have caused fear and anxiety among LGBTQ people across the country, some of whom said they are now too anxious to use their local Planet Fitness or set foot in the locker room.

“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,” a Planet Fitness spokesperson said in a statement following the Alaska incident. “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.”

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By Taylor Lorenz
Taylor Lorenz is a columnist at The Washington Post covering technology and online culture. Before joining The Post, she was a technology reporter for the New York Times. Previously, she was a technology reporter at the Atlantic and the Daily Beast.

By Gus Garcia-Roberts
Gus Garcia-Roberts is an investigative reporter in the Sports Department, and the author of "Jimmy the King: Murder, Vice and the Rise of a Dirty Cop." He joined The Washington Post in April 2021. Twitter

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Threats should be dealth with quickly and harshly

They only seem to catch someone occasionally. Three times a year, and only after several dozen threats.

When they catch them in 3 weeks and jail them within 2 months for 18 months and fine them costs plus $xxk, threats will stop.