‘You’ve humiliated me in front of your entire gym’: Planet Fitness staff allegedly harasses, deadnames trans TikToker
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 as well as Planet Fitness regarding these incidents.
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