(September 2015) Yvette Cormier listens to attorney Arthur Pressman representing Planet Fitness' parent company during a hearing asking for the dismissal of a lawsuit involving the company's transgender-friendly locker room policy.
MIDLAND, MI — The Michigan Supreme Court will allow a lawsuit to move forward involving a transgender woman using the women’s locker room at a Planet Fitness.
Yvette Cormier’s lawsuit against Planet Fitness was filed in Midland County in 2015 after her membership was canceled because she complained to fellow gym members about seeing a transgender woman using the locker room.
A Midland County woman's gym membership was cancelled after she refused to stop telling other members about a person she called a "man" in the woman's locker room.
Cormier said her membership at Planet Fitness was wrongly terminated. Cormier is alleging violations of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, breach of contract and other claims.
A Midland County woman who sued Planet Fitness for its transgender-friendly locker room policy is now taking her case to the Michigan's highest court.
Midland County Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Beale dismissed the lawsuit in 2016. Cormier’s attorney, David A. Kallman, appealed the judge’s decision to the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals affirmed Beale's ruling in June of 2016, but Cormier then took her case to the Michigan Supreme Court, which ordered the Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision.
The state appeals court then said Cormier’s case can go to trial. The state Supreme Court on April 2 said that decision will stand.
The issue that remains is Planet Fitness' alleged failure to reveal that it had an unwritten policy that allows an individual to use whichever locker room or restroom that corresponds with the gender that individual self-identifies.
Cormier’s initial lawsuit was seeking damages of $25,000 or more from Planet Fitness.