Virgin Active SA to leave X after backlash on transgender changing room policy

Health club Virgin Active SA has announced it’s leaving Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, following a backlash in response to its recent announcement that trans people could use the changing rooms which aligned with their legal gender.

Iin April this year, Virgin Active SA posted on X that: “Virgin Active is committed to creating safe and inclusive spaces for all of our members. To ensure we achieve this, access to change rooms must correspond to a member’s legal gender identity. We welcome members of the transgender community at all our clubs and allow those who have completed their full medical transition to access bathrooms that correlate with their changed legal gender.”

They added at the time: “Male members cannot access female-only spaces if they are still in transition. To ensure that we maintain this policy, members who have completed their transition must provide official identification documents reflecting their changed gender, issued by an appropriate authority. We also provide special needs/gender-neutral ablutions and facilities at most of our clubs for those who prefer a private space to change.”

The announcement resulted in a predictable outcry from social media users, who slammed the company out for not “protecting” its female customers. 

Angry users went as far as to threaten to boycott the company’s gyms around the country and cancel their membership.

VIRGIN ACTIVE SA WILL QUIT X AT THE END OF JUNE

Due to the backlash, Virgin Active SA announced to its 75 000 followers on Wednesday that it would permanently deactivate its X account on Sunday, 30 June and asked followers to stay in contact via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.

“Hey @X, we need to talk. About you. When we first met, you were sharp, witty & playful. We were literally obsessed. But you’ve changed. Slowly shapeshifting from a social platform into a seething, malignant cesspool over time. We’ve come to realise that we want different things,” they wrote.

“We want our community to feel safe, healthy and positive, and you prefer drama, conflict and negativity. So, we will be ending this toxic situationship on 30 June and taking things to the next level on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn. It’s not us, it’s you.”

That post didn’t go down well with social media either, with a host of responses from the public, including social media guru Gus Silber and The Kiffness – among others.

Virgin Active was founded in 1998 by Richard Branson and Matthew Bucknall.

It has over 200 health clubs worldwide, the majority of which are in South Africa, as well as Namibia, Botswana, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

THOUGHTS ON VIRGIN ACTIVE’S DECISION?

Let us know by emailing info@thesouthafrican.com or sending a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1