Planet Fitness cancels woman's membership after her complaints of transgender woman in locker room

[Cal Carpenter]

119. I'm not shutting anything down.

And I didn't 'move to the bigotry argument'. The bigotry is part of the conversation whether or not you see it or want to admit it. I'm not saying you are a bigot - to be clear. I am saying it sounds like you are siding with a bigot for some reason.

Safety and perception of safety are two different things. We agree that the safety of everyone at the gym is vital. Where we diverge is that you seem to think the complainant's perception of her own safety trumps the right of the gym to be judgment free and trans-friendly and that it trumps the right of the trans woman's perception of safety (and maybe her actual safety too).

When that perception has no rational basis you are erring on the side of bigotry. Period. The trans woman has not been violent. There is no rational reason to assume she ever will be, anymore than any other person in that gym of any gender or identity. There is no evidence in the article that the gym has done anything to compromise anyone's actual safety.

You can't prove a negative. There is nothing that will prove 100% that the trans woman isn't a sociopathic rapist pretending to be trans. Even a doctor's note (which, according to you, seems to be the thing that could have avoided the conflict) isn't proof of this. A true sociopath might go to such lengths to legitimize his/her position and have easier access to raping vulnerable women. So if the complaining woman's real problem with this is her own safety (as opposed to bigotry), and she genuinely believes that her safety is compromised by the presence of a person who identifies as female but has male parts and apparently isn't 'passing' as female yet, then no doctor's note can or should satisfy her.

You emphasize "...the right of a woman to know that her gym takes her concerns about safety seriously..." . First, that goes both ways in this scenario. Second, you conclude that a doctor's note would have satisfied the complainant. For one thing, that's speculation, and I can do that too - if this woman is the bigot she sounds like, the doctor's note would probably not satisfy her "concerns". For another, she has NO RIGHT to see the trans woman's medical information. Again, it is mind-boggling that you think this would be acceptable to expect.

That's where the argument hits a wall, I guess, because you seem to think that publicizing her private medical records is not only appropriate, but that it will satisfy the complainant's concern. This is catering to bigotry, it is not protecting anyone's actual safety.

My guess is that this is the first trans woman that the complainant has ever recognized. Because if she knew other trans people, she would know that it takes a long time to physically transition, to 'pass', and for some folks it is impossible for one reason or another. But that doesn't change that person's identity. I stand by what I said - if the gym is comfortable with a self-identified trans woman using the woman's locker room, and there is no evidence that the trans woman has other motives, then the complainant has to decide if that's good enough for her. If it's not, then she needs to find another gym. Instead, she harassed other gym members and got herself booted.

Consequences.