At least 54 threats have been received by Planet Fitness locations following attacks by a far-right influencer after the gym revoked the membership of a woman in Alaska who complained about “a man shaving in a women’s bathroom” and posted a photo of the person online.
By Taylor Lorenz, Gus Garcia-Roberts, The Washington PostJohn Hart-Battles,17, is growing up in Oklahoma, a state increasingly impacted by Libs of TikTok, the anti-LGBTQ social media account.
But the pattern is familiar to LGBTQ activists, who link the wave of threats to the far-right influencer Chaya Raichik, who runs the social media account @libsoftiktok.
Violent threats have followed Raichik’s tweets before, including dozens of bomb threats against LGBTQ pride events, children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care, drag queen story hours, and at least two dozen public schools and libraries. Schools in California, Colorado and Oklahoma have canceled classes and evacuated students following Libs of TikTok posts about them.
One transgender Planet Fitness staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for their safety, told The Post that they initially heard about the campaign when a member called the club “screaming and ranting heinously transphobic nonsense.” The Grondahl brothers cut membership fees to the bone; created a “lunk alarm,” a siren that would go off if weightlifters grunted too loudly; and hosted a monthly pizza night. They were all measures to make the gym feel like, as the company’s stock filings stated, a place “where anyone — and we mean anyone — can feel they belong.” The pitch worked, with the chain signing up millions of members. The company’s market capitalization is now more than $5 billion.
In Grondahl’s telling, a clash with Moore was central to his exit from the company. He stepped down as CEO in late 2012 and left the company’s board the following year, he said, and he was paid roughly $140 million for his shares. In his interview with Raichik, Grondahl said he was “shown the door” when he tried to raise the alarm about Moore’s past.
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