Andrew Bailey, Attorney General of Missouri in 2023 Photo: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY via IMAGN
Eris Montano—a transgender woman who used the locker room at Life Time Gym in suburban St. Louis, Missouri—has become the flashpoint of an anti-trans protest, calls for the gym to be boycotted, and an investigation launched into her by the state’s Republican attorney general.
Montano joined the gym on Sunday and used the gym’s women’s locker room the next day. Another woman in the sauna approached her, misgendered her, and said she did not belong there, Montano said, according to The Maine Wire.
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After the woman continued harassing her, Montano said she tugged at her own bikini top to emphasize her breasts to the woman, demonstrating “that I am a real woman.”
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Montano said that she had met with the general manager previous to becoming a gym member because she wanted to know the center’s policies regarding trans members. She said that the reaction of other gym patrons was largely positive, besides the woman who confronted her.
Montano then went to the manager, who revealed that the club gym had received other complaints about her use of the women’s locker room.
Natalie Bushaw, a spokesperson for Life Time, defended the gym’s decision. She said the company recognizes that “there are varying opinions regarding locker room access,” adding, “As a company, we are committed to following the law in every area we operate with respect to public accommodation.”
“Life Time is committed to providing safe, welcoming and respectful environments. To the extent we receive reports of conduct inconsistent with our club policies, we review and address them,” Bushaw added.
Bushaw showed the gym’s staff a copy of Montano’s driver’s license, which lists her gender as female. Although Missouri is one of 18 states lacking explicit legal prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, Life Time’s members are still allowed to use locker rooms that correspond to the gender listed on their state-issued photo ID.
“We embrace our commitment to recognize, elevate and empower women and the BIPOC, disabled and LGBTQIA+ communities to ensure all are equally heard, accepted, respected, supported and valued to fully participate,” the inclusivity page on Life Time’s website states.
The following Friday, dozens of protesters demonstrated at the gym to protest Montano’s use of the women’s locker room. Some protestors and online commenters called for a boycott. The public attention prompted Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey to announce an investigation into the gym’s policies.
Bailey sent a letter to Life Time that repeatedly misgendered Montano and told the gym that its policies “are enabling potentially criminal behavior” including public trespassing (even though gym’s policies allow her to use the locker room). Bailey wrote, “As Attorney General, I will vigorously defend and enforce Missouri’s laws. You face both potential criminal and civil liabilities.”
His letter cited a 2015 appeals court ruling against a man convicted of misdemeanor trespassing in a women’s gas station restroom. The man—who made no mention of being transgender or ever identifying as a woman—holed up in a women’s gas station bathroom and smoked cigarettes for several hours. When staff asked him to leave, he disguised his voice and was later found carrying lotion and a pornographic magazine.
When the police asked the man why he was in the bathroom, he “responded that he had to defecate ‘really bad’,” the 2015 appellate court ruling stated.
Local police said that they’re investigating a complaint that Montano had allegedly exposed herself to a woman in the locker room earlier in the week. No charges have been announced however.
Montano, for her part, has said she has done nothing wrong She said she only changes clothes in the single-person dressing room stalls within the locker room, and drapes a towel over the door to her shower stall.
“I’m not there to see anybody else. I am there to change clothes, and get the heck out of there,” Montano said.
And she plans on continuing to go to the gym, saying that she is “not even a little bit” worried about going back.
“These people are loud, but I know they’re not the majority,” Montano said.
