Missouri AG threatens to sue Life Time athletic club over allowing biological men into women's locker facilities

ELLISVILLE, MO - Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has begun an investigation into the Ellisville, Missouri location of Life Time athletic club after being notified about a biological male who identifies as female being allowed to use the women’s locker rooms at the facility. The probe comes after an incident at the facility where a woman complained about a male who identifies as a female using the women’s locker facilities, the Post Millennial reports. 

In a press release, Bailey’s office announced the probe “after constituents notified him that the gym has actively allowed a biological male to use women and girls’ private spaces. He immediately put the gym on notice that they may face both potential criminal and civil liability for putting women and girls in harm’s way.” 

In a notice of investigation, AG Bailey wrote, “It has come to my attention that Life Time Fitness has proudly adopted a policy that permits biological men to use locker rooms designated specifically for women and young girls. Even more concerning is the fact that instead of taking the safety concerns from your gym members seriously, you rudely correct them and insist they call this biological male by the ‘correct pronouns.’

"While it might be considered fashionable in certain corporate boardrooms to pretend that biology is irrelevant, the American heartland still lives in reality. Missourians recognize that allowing adult men to openly invade and disrobe in spaces set aside for women and young girls is indefensible and places political correctness above public safety. That is why I am putting you on notice that you are under investigation.” 

The release noted that Bailey had “personally prosecuted the leading case on criminal trespass, State v. Girardier, where a male refused to leave a women’s restroom.” In that case, the court affirmed that a male’s presence in a female public restroom constituted criminal trespass. 

“When restrooms are separately designated for males and females, one is only permitted to use the restroom designed for his or her gender,” Bailey wrote. “Additionally, a male who exposes his genitals in the presence of others in the restroom may be subject to further criminal liability for multiple sexual offenses, including sexual misconduct in the first degree and the felony offense of sexual misconduct involving a child.” 

Bailey warned Life Time that if they “insist on endangering women and young girls in our state, in open defiance of the law, be assured you will face the consequences." 

After Bailey warned the fitness club of an investigation, they changed course and revoked the membership of the gym member in question, Eris Montano, age 52. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Montano was removed from the gym last week, where he was using the sauna and sunbathing. 

The gym said that Montano’s membership revocation had “absolutely nothing” to do with the investigation, but instead was the result of social media posts he had posted over the previous few days that some members of the gym felt constituted threats of violence. 

Life Time spokesperson Natalie Bushaw told the Post-Dispatch, “Providing safe, secure environments is paramount for our team members, members, and guests. Life Time will continue to operate our clubs in a safe and secure manner while also following the Missouri laws in place to protect the human rights of individuals.” 

In addressing Bailey’s investigation threat, Bushaw said, “These are two separate issues. If any person provides any types of similar posts that contain threats of violence then the exact same action would be taken.” 

Montano, however, denied the social media posts were threatening and said he had been to the gym throughout the preceding weekend without incident. 

In one post, Montano said, “If these idiots were scared of me yesterday when they were watching me carefully while I was naked and cornered in the shower, wondering how they’re gonna be feeling about me after today.” 

In another post, Montano, an AI engineer, wrote, “...cool thing about ISP logs and telecom logs is that if you know what you’re doing, you don’t need someone’s computer to subpoena their entire internet usage.” 

One of those who expressed discomfort with Montano being in the women’s locker room is Cindy Zykan, who told The Blaze’s Jason Whitlock that she had spoken to a number of other women and girls at the gym who paused or canceled their memberships at the gym over safety concerns. 

She told Whitlock she was in the indoor pool area waiting for her husband so they could go to the sauna together. She said that area was a co-ed one, and that she saw a man (Montano) “walking in a bikini” with “the full genitalia,” a sight that gave her a “bad feeling” in her stomach. 

While she and her husband were in the sauna, she saw Montano enter the women’s locker room. She tried to find a manager, who wasn’t at the facility yet. She went to the front desk and told them there was a man in the women’s locker room, to which she was told “Well, you know, we’re supposed to create a safe space,” Zykan said. 

Instead, Zykan confronted Montano, saying that while she was “upset,” she remained “polite” while telling him he should be in the men’s locker room. 

Zykan said in response, Montano “lifted up his shirt and grab his, you know, pecs, I guess you could–call them boobs, but, you know, male boobs and kind of shook them a bit and said, you know, ‘these don’t belong in the men’s room.’ And you know, I said, ‘Well, you know, you have a penis and that definitely does belong in the men’s room. And then he told me that he had more estrogen in his body than I do, and at that point, I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to have a constructive conversation with you.”

Zykan said she hoped management would straighten the issue out when they got there. 

Zykan said that Montano’s ex-wife used to work at Life Time for approximately seven years. She said Montano was a member of the gym at that time and went with the couple’s young daughter. Montano recently was divorced from his wife after 23 years of marriage, and now Montano identifies as a woman. Moreover, Zykan said, what makes it even more disturbing is that he also identifies as a lesbian.