CONCORD, NH - A New Hampshire woman claims her local Planet Fitness cancelled her membership and trespassed her from the premises solely for the act of alerting staff to a male being present in the women’s locker room, with the company reportedly citing their nondiscrimination-against-transgenders policy as the reason why.
On April 11th, Judy Walcott ventured to her local Planet Fitness in Concord and was just about to use the restroom located inside of the women’s locker room at the gym when she happened upon a “creepy” man seemingly about to use the shower inside the women’s locker room.
“He gave me goosebumps. I went to the front desk. I said, 'There's somebody there who's really creepy, and it's freaking me out.' And it was just a kid, you know, I think he was new even, and [the man at the front desk] just said, 'There's nothing I can do about it.',” Walcott revealed to a local ABC affiliate.
According to Walcott, no employee at the facility checked out the situation on the day of the incident following her reported concerns. Days after the initial incident, Walcott said she brought the matter up again while at the Planet Fitness to another employee, except in this instance, the employee reportedly accused her of being “transphobic.”
“[The employee] just kept calling me transphobic. Told me I should quit if I didn't like it. Pointed to the door. So I just walked away. And it was a few hours later that the assistant manager in Concord called me and canceled me. She didn't ask me anything. She wasn't present for any of it. She just canceled me for a policy violation,” Walcott said.
During the phone call with the assistant manager from the Concord location, Walcott claimed the specific policy she allegedly violated wasn’t explicitly detailed, but upon receiving her cancellation form, the cited policy violation read “Nondiscrimination Trans.” Additionally, Walcott asserted her signature was forged on the cancellation form and she was charged for an additional month of membership. Considering Walcott was charged for an additional month’s membership, she attempted to utilize the facility only to have the police called on her and got hit with a no-trespass order.
Per Planet Fitness’ policies for all locations, sex-segregated areas like showers, restrooms, and locker rooms are open to anyone regardless of their biological sex so long as they state it aligns with “their self-reported gender identity.”
Walcott is understandably frustrated by how the matter was handled, saying, “They should have check and made me feel comfortable, like, however they did it. If there's nothing that they could do, honestly, then I would say, 'I'm sorry you feel uncomfortable. There's nothing I can do right now about it. I'd be happy to have my manager call you.' Something like that is what you should get.”
In light of the debacle, and after being charged for an additional month of membership despite being barred from the premises, Walcott is reportedly searching for an attorney who specializes in consumer protection law.
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