On March 7, a Midland woman had her gym membership revoked for complaining about an alleged transgender woman using the women’s locker room, fearing for her safety. The explosion of media coverage turned the nation’s eye toward the Tri-Cities and transgender issues.
Yvette Cormier said during an open media event that she was walking into the Midland Planet Fitness locker room last Saturday when she saw someone “dressed like a man,” describing the person as “huge” and “very manly.”
The employee at the front desk told her that Planet Fitness policy is “whatever gender you feel you are, that’s the locker room you’re allowed to go in,” according to Cormier.
“He said, ‘if you’re uncomfortable with that you can wait until he’s done in there,'” she said. “I stood back and said, ‘How about he waits until I’m done in the women’s locker room. Or get a unisex bathroom.’ “
A unisex bathroom could have prevented the situation entirely. According to University of Chicago law professor Mary Ann Case, “Individuals will not be forced to conform to any standard of what it is appropriate for a man or for a woman to look like in order safely to enter a public restroom.”
However, Cormier then accused the gym of “failing to protect me if anything happens in those locker rooms with a man.” Even though this person identifies as a woman, Cormier continues to use the masculine pronoun, devaluing this person’s identity. What’s worse is that Cormier attaches the idea of this person being predatory.
In reality, it is difficult to find reports of transgender people committing sexual assault; in fact, most searches come back with transgender people as the victim. Even more so, Rebecca Stotzer’s research paper titled “Violence AgainstTransgender People: A Review of United States Data,” found that approximately 50% of transgender people experience sexual violence at some point in their lifetime.
Cormier then thought it would be best to hide out in the locker room for the next few days, where she “told everyone in the locker room what happened.”
In response, Planet Fitness management scolded Cormier, stating that she was, “talking to people about him in the women’s locker room,” and that she was, “making people upset.”
“That’s my whole point,” Cormier replied, furthering Planet Fitness’s case. “I wouldn’t have signed up for this gym if I knew that ahead of time,” lamented Cormier, maybe for not reading the fine print?
Planet Fitness Director of Public Relations McCall Gosselin said the gym’s, “gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use all gym facilities based on their sincere self-reported gender identity.”
Gosselin added, “her membership was not cancelled as a result of complaints about our policy, as we welcome all feedback from our members. Rather, it was the manner in which her concerns were expressed that club management felt was inappropriate, which resulted in the cancellation.”
In other word Yvette: It’s not that you tattled, but it’s that you stalked. It’s that you preyed on this person because you were uncomfortable with their chosen identity.
For Cormier, and most people, gender is a difficult subject. Is there truly any habit or activity that can be attributed to either masculinity or femininity? Human behavior is far too complicated to fall into such a tight binary. But, we humans like our binaries. They’re nice and easy. For example, we have Republicans or Democrats, Patriots or Seahawks, and men or women. Nice and easy.
Allowing gender to exist in a binary creates preconceived notions about a person’s behavior based on their perceived sex. If we were to redefine gender or abolish it completely, we would most likely see a massive drop in stereotyping and violence.
The issue here is that Cormier invalidated this transgender person’s identity and assumed this individual was a predator, while in reality she preyed on that person. This event highlights the misinformation and marginalization of the transgender community. Gender conformity remains the status quo, and Cormier’s quest to avenge it reads like a poor Alexander Dumas novel.
“All human wisdom is contained in these two words, ‘Wait and Hope.”