It pays a toll. Businesses that have stood by us like Bud Light, Target, and Plant Fitness have paid price in their support of us.
At least 54 threats have been received by Planet Fitness locations following attacks by far-right influencer Chaya RaichikThe Washington PostBy Taylor Lorenz and Gus Garcia-RobertsApril 28, 2024John Hart-Battles, a 17-year-old high school junior in Oklahoma, joined Planet Fitness last June to keep in shape as a member of his school’s color guard team. As a young gay man, he liked Planet Fitness’s focus on inclusivity, an approach that turned it into one of the leading fitness brands in the United States. He started going twice a week.But for the past few weeks, he, like many LGBTQ Planet Fitness patrons and staffers, has stayed away, as at least 54 bomb threats have been made to Planet Fitness locations across the country, many of which led to evacuations. “It’s one of my worst fears, to be hate crimed, specifically in a locker room,” said Hart-Battles, who called the attacks on Planet Fitness “very unsettling.”Local police and the FBI say they have yet to determine who is behind the threats, which in some instances have forced the evacuation, police say, not just of Planet Fitness locations but of businesses nearby.
When I did diversity training one of my slides read,
Microaggression• Misuse of pronouns• Using old name (Deadnaming)• Use of derogatory words:◦ Transvestite◦ It◦ He/She◦ Shemales◦ Tranny (maybe used within the community)• Judging and Blaming• Shaming or Guilting• Ridiculing• Shunning or Ignoring• Attacking friends of the target
It is the last bullet point that effects our allies. It is not only those who our are our friend who also get targeted but also businesses that support that get attacked.
It seems that a right-wing talk show host might be behinds it,
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. She has made Planet Fitness the object of critical posts since early March when Planet Fitness 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.
These people on social media stir up animosity against us and then hide behind the First Amendment, but many of them social media accounts cross the line to “Incitement to violence.”
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. Raichik recently compared her Planet Fitness posts with last year’s controversy after Anheuser-Busch paid a trans influencer to tout a beer brand in an Instagram post. “This might be the most successful boycott since Bud Light,” she said.
Hello law enforcement officials, district attorneys! How about looking in to legal charges?
Bomb threats and evacuations
The 54 incidents are national in nature: Seven Planet Fitness locations in Virginia have been targeted, and at least two in Maryland, according to the tabulations. In Fargo, N.D., two locations were evacuated, and a franchise manager explained to police that “this has been happening across the country at their other locations” since the incident in Alaska, a police report shows.On Friday, a bomb threat to a Planet Fitness location in Charlottesville caused a nearby street to be closed to traffic during rush hour, police said. It was at least the second threat to the same location. The Planet Fitness employee who answered the phone at that location shortly after the incident said they were “not allowed to say anything.”
Hey! Isn’t that terrorism? I sure hope that the FBI and police are going after the terrorists making the bomb threats.
Haley Zapal, an LGBTQ Planet Fitness member in Atlanta, said that she hopes the company can remain publicly supportive of the trans community and not cave to online pressure. “If they’re prioritizing safety,” Zapal said, “I think they should keep in mind who is doing the aggression, and it doesn’t seem like it’s the trans people.”The only way to stop these bomb threats are long prison sentences. Start locking them up for 5 to 10.
Laws, local and federal, need to be enacted to address these calls as "terrorism" with long prison sentences. Last night on "60 Minutes" it was pointed out that many of the "swatting" calls are made by minors. High school bomb threats are made by minors. If the law is going to give a minor a break due to age, at least convict them so a "prior bad act" can be considered when they are again convicted as an adult.
ReplyDelete