Planet Fitness, a big gym chain in the US, is getting a lot of bad press for its stance on transgender locker rooms, which has started a national conversation about gender identity and privacy. The debate has done a lot of damage to the company’s stock, which has dropped sharply in value.
The firestorm started when a video of a transgender woman using the women’s locker room at a Fairbanks, Alaska, site went viral. A woman took a picture and a video of herself being uncomfortable and saying that the place should only be open to cisgender women.
The video went viral online very quickly, getting millions of views and starting heated arguments on many social media sites. Concerns about safety and privacy collided with defences of transgender rights, showing how hard it is to be accepting of everyone.
Planet Fitness’s “Judgement Free Zone” policy lets users use locker rooms that match their gender identity. But this strategy has become the centre of a very divisive argument.
The public criticism has cost Planet Fitness a lot of money. In just 12 days, the price of its stock dropped 15%, from $66 to $56 per share. The market value of the company went down by $400 million, from $5.3 billion to $4.9 billion.
Investors are worried about what might happen because they don’t want members to cancel their plans or fewer people to become members. Analysts say Planet Fitness’s brand is at risk as it tries to find the right mix between being open to everyone and listening to what customers want.
Planet Fitness responded by saying again that it was committed to being welcoming and making the gym a safe and friendly place for everyone. But the comment didn’t stop the debate from getting worse.
According to experts in the field, the long-term effects will depend on how Planet Fitness handles member issues and changes the way it talks to its customers. Some say that being open about the company’s policies on inclusion could help its image, while others are worried that long-term backlash could hurt the bottom line.
Planet Fitness has to deal with this controversial problem without turning off its wide range of members while the debate continues. The company’s future will depend a lot on how it handles this issue, since its stock is already under a lot of pressure.
