Shares of Planet Fitness tumbled this week after the fitness chain revoked the membership of a woman who took video of a naked person in a women's locker room at one of the chain's locations in Fairbanks, Alaska.
On March 7, shares of Planet Fitness were trading at $66.92 at closing. The stock has steadily declined since the controversy, opening today around $56 per share. That decreases the company valuation from around $5.6 billion to around $4.95 billion.
Conservative backlash over Planet Fitness' decision to revoke Patricia Silva's membership for shooting video of a transgender person in the locker room has led to the creation of a #BoycottPlanetFitness hashtag on Twitter.
Planet Fitness has maintained that it is against the chain's policy for any member to record anything in a locker room. The company also has in place a policy that allows anyone to use the bathroom or locker room that they have self-reported upon signing up for membership.
“Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use the facilities that best align with the sincere, self-reported gender identity,” the gym said in a statement, adding that there are caveats to that policy. “If it is confirmed that a member is acting in bad faith and improperly asserts a gender identity, they may be asked to leave and their membership may be terminated,” the company said.
Planet Fitness confirmed to Fox News that Silva had her membership revoked for violating a policy that prohibits taking photos or video in the locker room.
“As the home of the Judgement Free Zone, Planet Fitness is committed to creating an inclusive environment,” Planet Fitness chief corporate affairs officer McCall Gosselin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our gender identity non-discrimination policy, states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity. The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being terminated.”
Silva said she went to the gym on Monday and saw “a man with a penis” shaving in the women’s locker room.
“I just came out of Planet Fitness, and there is a man shaving in the women’s bathroom,” she said in the first of several videos she posted about the incident.
“I realize he wants to be a woman, he gets to be a woman. I love him in Christ, he’s a spiritual being having a human experience. He doesn’t like his gender, so he wants to be a woman. But I’m not comfortable with him shaving in my bathroom.”
In a video posted last Wednesday, Silva said that there was a girl who could have been 12 years old "in a towel kind of freaked out that there's a man shaving in the locker room."
Planet Fitness identified the individual as transgender in an email exchange with Fox News Digital.
Silva said she took a picture of the individual, because she was in "an unsafe space.”
