Dozens of Planet Fitness Locations Receive Bomb Threats Over Transgender Locker Room Policy

By Patricia Tolson

As of Thursday, Planet Fitness locations in 11 states had received nearly 50 bomb threats since a female member had her membership terminated for taking a photograph of a biological male identifying as a transgender woman who was allegedly shaving in the women’s locker room.

While no bombs have been found, the threats have forced dozens of facilities to evacuate as a precaution.

The Planet Fitness location in Fairbanks, Alaska, was the first location to receive a bomb threat on March 15. That’s where 67-year-old Patricia Silva photographed the biological male in the women’s locker room and subsequently complained to the staff.

Soon after, her membership was terminated for violating the company’s policy against taking photographs of other people in the locker room.

On March 28, police in New Haven, Connecticut, rushed to a local Planet Fitness location after someone called the police station’s media office and claimed there were “shrapnel bombs” at Planet Fitness locations in New Haven, Orange, East Haven, and Hamden, the New Haven Independent reported.

The East Haven location received a second bomb threat on April 4, and on April 6, a location in Norwich, Connecticut, was evacuated after receiving a threat, the Hartford Courant reported.

In Rhode Island, police received a series of threats against Planet Fitness locations in Providence, East Providence, and Warwick on four separate occasions, ABC News affiliate Providence Now reported.

In Florida, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department confirmed that seven Planet Fitness locations had been evacuated for bomb threats on April 5, First Coast News reported.

Locations in Jackson, Mississippi, and Wayne County, Michigan, have also been targeted with bomb threats.

In Alabama, Planet Fitness locations in Fairhope, Daphne, and Mobile received bomb threats, according to Al.com.

Meanwhile, Coast TV reported that several bomb threats had been reported at Planet Fitness locations in Maryland, including for locations in West Ocean City, Milford, Delaware, and Dover.

In Virginia, gym locations in Alexandria and Charlottesville were also targeted. In addition, Planet Fitness locations in the North Dakota cities of Fargo, Moorhead, and Grand Forks were targeted, according to Lakes Area Radio.

Membership Cancellation

Before the first threats began, Ms. Silva took to social media to post a message about her membership being canceled on March 11.

She described how she found the man shaving in the women’s locker room and the confrontation that ensued. When the man refused to leave, claiming privilege of being LGBT, she went to the front desk to complain, she said.

Planet Fitness’s Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Policy states that “private information such as a person’s identification as transgender or nonbinary and any medical information must be treated as confidential.” A spokesperson for the low-cost fitness chain justified the termination of Ms. Silva’s membership by citing its “Judgement Free Zone” policy.

“As the home of the Judgement Free Zone, Planet Fitness is committed to creating an inclusive environment,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the New York Post on March 15. “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. 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.”

On April 8, Ms. Silva again took to social media to post an update, linking to an article in Must Read Alaska, that said Planet Fitness is now claiming the photo of the man shaving in the women’s locker room is fake.

In response, the social media account Libs of TikTok posted a message on X accusing Planet Fitness of engaging in a cover-up by denying the legitimacy of Ms. Silva’s claims.

“We don’t discriminate against anybody, alien, monster, nobody,” a Planet Fitness employee is heard telling a Libs of TikTok journalist on a recorded phone call. “As long as they’re not harming you or yours, we understand.”

The employee then insists that the photo of the man shaving wasn’t even taken in their locker room.

However, the Libs of TikTok video also reveals a second photo that appears to show the same man in the same women’s locker room.

News of the decision by Planet Fitness to cancel Ms. Silva’s membership quickly went viral on social media, as did calls to boycott the fitness chain.

In the aftermath, Planet Fitness lost $400 million in five days as its market value tumbled from $5.3 billion on March 14 to $4.9 billion on March 19.

Not the First Time

This is not the first time Planet Fitness canceled the membership of a woman who complained about having a man in the women’s locker room.

The fitness chain revoked the membership of Yvette Cormier in 2015 after she expressed concerns about having a biological man identifying as a transgender woman in the locker room at a Michigan location and began to warn other women members.

Ms. Cormier filed a lawsuit, and the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Planet Fitness violated consumer protection laws as well as the contract it entered with Ms. Cormier because the terms of her membership provided access to a private women’s locker room, which it did not fulfill.

There have been cases of men allegedly taking advantage of the fitness chain’s transgender locker room policy to access women and girls.

A 38-year-old man in Gascon County, North Carolina, was arrested on April 3 after a woman at Planet Fitness called 911 and reported that he was naked in the women’s locker room and asking a female gym member to rub lotion on him and shower with him, the New York Post reported.

The 911 caller said Mr. Miller kept saying he identified as a woman and refused to leave the locker room, continuing to expose himself.

In September 2023 in Monroe, Georgia, a man named Jakorbie Dixon was arrested after allegedly exposing himself to a 15-year-old girl in a Planet Fitness women’s locker room, local news reported. Mr. Dixon allegedly approached the girl while she was showering, pulling back the curtain as he stood there completely naked, harassing her until she left.

The girl’s aunt, Alexis Dempsey Peel, posted on Facebook about the incident and said she and the girl’s mother went to the gym the next day to report it.

She said the gym staff were aware of Mr. Dixon and had received other complaints but that he had a right to be in the women’s locker room. They reportedly said they would warn him not to expose himself again.

Planet Fitness Founder Speaks Out

In a March 29 interview with Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik, former Planet Fitness CEO Mike Grondahl said the Judgement Free Zone was originally intended to provide a low-cost and safe environment for novice gymgoers who wouldn’t be judged for being out of shape or being new to fitness.

It’s “devastating” what that Judgement Free Zone has become today, he told Ms. Raichik.

“Planet Fitness was like another child for me. And I put my heart and soul into building that company and it’s been pretty much destroyed in, you know—it’s lost all respect within the country within the last couple weeks,” he said. “There’s no common sense standing behind this.”

Mr. Grondahl sold the company to a private equity firm in November 2012. He stayed on as CEO after the sale but said he was ousted after he learned that the company’s chief administrative officer and general counsel had pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving high school students in North Carolina several years before.

Mr. Grondahl brought this to the attention of the private equity firm, but the firm chose to keep the attorney on staff and instead forced out Mr. Grondahl, he told Ms. Raichik.

“It’s in the culture,” Mr. Grondahl told Ms. Raichik. “Now the culture leads into the people doing the right thing are being thrown out of Planet Fitness.”