A transgender TikToker has taken to the platform to share an experience at Planet Fitness in which she says she was deliberately misgendered by an employee.
@Kloebby stated in her video that her dead name was used against her by Planet Fitness staff when she went to the gym as a guest of a friend. She said she will be filing a “small claims action lawsuit” against the establishment.
“You went into my credit card information and got my dead name and proceeded to yell at me while I’m going to the bathroom,” she said. “My dead name. In front of all these people. You’ve humiliated me in front of your entire gym, with my dead name.”
Deadnaming is the act of using a transgender person’s birth name without their consent. It is often done to invalidate a trans person’s gender identity and, sometimes, to out a person.
“This is very disgusting behavior,” she said. “I just wanted to go to the gym and use the gym. In these facilities, it’s a ‘judgement free’ zone. Everybody else is nice. It’s the staff. It literally is the staff. So I’m going to be calling corporate again and I will be filing a small claims action lawsuit. This is disgusting.”
Her video has gained over 320,000 views. Viewers sent messages of support in her comments and tagged Planet Fitness’ TikTok account for answers.
“@planetfitness any words? Any? So much for judgment free,” one user noted about the gym’s motto.
@planetfitness I’ve been a member for 7 years,” another comment read. “7 YEARS! Today, I canceled my membership. Why? Because this. DO BETTER!”
“@planetfitness what are you teaching your employees?!?!” another viewer demanded. “Judgement free? What a scam. Hunny you’re beautiful and deserve better.”
Other folks were appalled at the apparent invasion of privacy and the effort to find @kloebby’s dead name.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” one person wrote. “That was a violation of your privacy.”
“Sue. This sounds like a huge breach of privacy. I am so sorry,” a commenter said.
Previously, @kloebby had used the platform to share a Planet Fitness experience in which her friend was allegedly discriminated against because he is disabled.
“This is for Matt, the regional manger of Planet Fitness in Columbus,” she said. “You are disgusting, you are a disgusting human being.”
@Kloebby said her friend, who has a gym membership with Planet Fitness, has spinal stenosis and his membership allowed him to use the gym’s hydromassage to treat it.
“He pays for a monthly fucking membership,” she said. “You are regional manager, literally did you not read the values in Planet Fitness’ terms and conditions?”
“You literally went out of your way because he created his home store in a different city, and you cannot transfer it to the new city, and you want to sit there and ban him from a gym,” she said. “You want to ban him from his only access of therapy because you want to be discriminatory.”
In that instance, she also threatened legal action against the regional manager and the company.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @Kloebby on Tiktok.
Update 4:20pm CT July 25: In a statement to the Daily Dot, senior vice president of communications at Planet Fitness McCall Gosselin said:
“As the home of the Judgement Free Zone, Planet Fitness embraces diversity in all its forms and strives to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome and like they belong. In addition, we were the first national gym to institute a locker room policy protecting transgender rights. We take these matters very seriously and are currently looking into these allegations.”
Today’s top stories
| ‘Fill her up’: Bartender gives woman a glass of water when the man she’s with orders tequila shot |
| ‘I don’t think my store has even sold one’: Whataburger employees take picture with first customer who bought a burger box |
| ‘It was a template used by anyone in the company’: Travel agent’s ‘condescending’ out-of-office email reply sparks debate |
| Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online. |
