Planet Fitness (which faced backlash for allowing trans men to shave in the women’s locker room) requires employees to undergo “unconscious bias training,” and at its former company, “DEI Perspective Training.” I hired a new boss who was a proponent of “hiring through people.”
Colleen Keating, who has been CEO of rental service FirstKey Homes since 2020, will become CEO of Planet Fitness on June 10, the company announced Tuesday.
During Keating’s time at the helm of FirstKey, she signed a document titled “CEO Action Pledge for Diversity and Inclusion.”
Executives who signed the pledge pledged to “continue to diversify our workforce and hire through a DE&I lens to find talent from multiple locations and backgrounds.”
The Post has reached out to Planet Fitness for comment.
Mr. Keating will succeed Chris Rondeau, who will remain on the company’s board of directors.
Shares of Planet Fitness, which has about 2,500 stores nationwide, were down about 1.7% Thursday afternoon.
The chain has been the subject of calls for a boycott after irate patrons reported seeing unclothed transgender gym patrons in the women’s locker room.
The controversy began last month when Planet Fitness member Patricia Silva, 67, posted a video of a trans man shaving in the women’s locker room at a Planet Fitness location in Alaska.
In the video, Silva said a transgender person “with a penis” “may have been about 12 years old…a man wrapped in a towel and kind of freaking out shaving in her girlfriend’s locker room.” He said he saw him approach the girl.
The gym suspended Silva for violating its policy against taking photos of other people on the facility.
Earlier this month, law enforcement officials in North Carolina arrested 38-year-old Christopher Miller on suspicion of entering the women’s locker room at a local Planet Fitness and exposing himself while claiming to be a woman.
Miller was arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure and booked into the Gaston County Jail on April 4.
Planet Fitness’ official company policy allows members to use restrooms and locker rooms based on their self-declared gender identity, but Miller identified herself as a transgender woman before entering the women’s locker room. There was no sign that he had recognized it.
Mr. Miller was held on $25,000 bail.
