Why Does Gold’s Gym Hate The Gays?
The CEO of Gold’s Gym donated $2 million to American Crossroads, Karl Rove’s organization that focuses on electing antigay politicians to office, according to Change.org. Given that Gold’s Gym has a rather large LGBT client base, this is downright dumb.
The Seattle Gay Scene blog posted about this story that ran in The Advocate. While it’s important they’ve brought this to the community’s attention, I’m apprehensive in agreeing with their idea that people should “dump Gold’s Gym.”
I workout at Gold’s Gym on Capitol Hill. While canceling my contract now would mean paying less in the long run than what I would pay until it runs out, I can’t afford to drop $125.00 at once, and I definitely can’t afford to pay the start-up fees to join another gym, as well as the expensive, mandatory training sessions that most likely come along with the agreement.
Has Gold’s Gym donated to an antigay group in efforts to get a large population of its clients to make an impulsive decision to cancel their gym memberships and pay the cancellation fee without acknowledging the financial reasoning behind doing so? Is it worth it for LGBT people to continue using Gold’s Gym’s services and know to cancel when they hit the one-year-mark?
There is a petition you can sign, being against this donation (SO PLEASE DO!).
If you do the math, and you can afford to cancel and switch gyms, then I urge you to do so. But if you live paycheck-to-paycheck like me, please think about your reasoning behind this decision – you could very well be giving Gold’s Gym more money without realizing it.
