Never thought of different bathroom as a way of separating genders. Always felt that they were used to separate sex. I mean, one side penis other side vaginas. Personally I wouldn't mind if a trans man was naked in front of me(probably would be awkward). Asked my gf, she said she wouldn't feel safe if the person still had a dick, especially considering the possibility of being a homossexual trans woman. She has no problem with using the same bathroom with lesbians or operated trans women though.
PS: I was talking about bathroom situations where people are naked in front of each other.
Would your gf really feel that unsafe after getting to know that she was transgender and after thinking how hard it would be for that woman to be there anyway (you can read some of the posts in this thread if it helps you/your gf understand it - most likely she wouldn't even be naked if she could avoid it at all)? Would she go as far as to tell her to get out of there? Would she talk behind her back to the company and other women there?
Also, there's a possibility that any woman in the same room is a lesbian. Any woman can check her out and theoretically, be a threat. I can understand that a woman with a dick might make a woman feel different in this regard, but once you're aware that she is a woman too, you should at least strive to realize that it's an irrational fear.
This opens a door to all sorts of uncomfortable situations if it is expanded to other places like swimming facilities and what have you. For example young girls might be exposed inside a female locker room just, because we have to accommodate people who have gender issues. Obviously we should try to understand these differences but I just wouldn't like to be a guardian in that scenario.
People who made this decision have good intentions and it must be hard to live in our society as a transgendered person, but the reality is that this might hurt them businesswise.
What all kinds of uncomfortable situations? Young girls being exposed to dicks? Would seeing a person who looks otherwise like a buff dude but has a vagina, be better then?
Or how about we teach our kids that people are different?
And also, I don't know if you're American or not, but in a lot of countries (of course, in America too in most families I'd say), kids actually bathe with their families, including the parent of opposite sex. So yeah, little girls see dicks. Sometimes kids are even taken into a public bathe house with the parent of the opposite sex. In that situation, a little girl sees a lot of dicks.
As for the business part, I'd guess that most people were bothered by the woman complaining to them about the transgendered woman, since the personnel got to know about it.
I have never been one to jump on the GAF proclivity for using the term, "false equivalence," but I believe this just might be one. Not that it even needs mentioning ... many of the 'retorts' in this thread have resorted to absurdity and exaggeration to equate reasonable viewpoints with prudishness and/or bigotry.
Time for a mea culpa, as I did not notice this when I originally read the OP (not thoroughly, or else I would have seen it). Thanks to Replicant on the previous page for pointing it out. Given that there are private changing stalls, I do not see a problem with Planet Fitness' policy. I mentioned earlier in the thread that until/unless they had appropriate accommodation for all customers, it should be penises go to that room, vaginas go to that room. But if there are private changing stalls available, that accommodation is present. Doesn't address showers, but I'm not sure if that gym chain has shower facilities. (?)
So, my bad for missing that. To me a 'locker room' means an open communal shower room, totally open floor area where you walk buck naked from the shower back to your locker and then towel off. (That's how it worked when I had gym class in the late 70's and early 80's - that's the world I grew up in. I've been told now that doesn't happen in schools much anymore, and pretty much doesn't happen at commercial gyms.) So again, I probably misinterpreted the situation.
Sorry quoting several pages back, but I feel your point didn't get responsed enough (you realising the OP covered that point in another way, didn't help with this point).
Prophet Steve (I think it was) actually replied to you about this, but you ignored that post completely. If it was a penis/vagina based, then how about girls seeing buff male looking people who have a vagina, for example? Would it somehow be "better" than seeing a woman with a dick?
Question, did the transgender woman in the story actually have surgery and all that? Or was it literally just a guy with a wig and whatnot?
Another quote a few pages back, but you didn't get a single reply.
Anyway, that's completely, utterly, irrelevant in this case. The reasons are in the OP, and have been talked through many times in the thread, but in case you missed them:
1. The person was informed that the transgender person identified as a woman. So it wasn't just a reaction that she felt uncomfortable (which would've been fine).
2. The gym had private stalls. The transgender woman wasn't showing anything if that's your concern.
I'm not even completely sure what you mean with "literally just a guy with a wig and whatnot".
