A gay man says an employee at the newly opened LA Fitness in The Shops at Mockingbird near Love Field twice called him a “faggot” on Sunday.
The man, 36-year-old Jason Evans, said he’s notified the gym’s management and plans to file a complaint with the city of Dallas, which has an ordinance prohibiting anti-gay discrimination in public accommodations.
An employee who answered the phone Monday at LA Fitness, 4540 W. Mockingbird Lane, said no one at the gym could comment on the incident.
“We’re actually not allowed to discuss it,” said the employee, who identified himself as an assistant manager. “If you’d like any kind of statement, you’d have to contact the corporate office.”
Asked whether he was aware of the incident, the assistant manager said, “Yes sir, and it’s being addressed. … All I can do is tell you to contact the corporate office.”
Calls to LA Fitness’ corporate office were placed on hold Monday. To read Evans’ account of the incident, jump with me.
Evans said when he went to the gym after attending church at the Cathedral of Hope on Sunday, sometime between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., there was no one at the front desk.
As Evans proceeded to the locker room, he noticed two employees, one male and one female, walking out of another room engaged in conversation. Once inside the locker room, Evans realized that he’d left his gym clothes in his vehicle.
On his way back outside, he again passed the two employees.
After retrieving his clothes, Evans came back inside and saw the employees near the front desk. He said the female employee snipped at him, “You need to check in.”
Evans snipped back, saying that he would have checked it, but there hadn’t been anyone at the front desk. He handed the woman his membership card and headed toward the locker room.
At that point, the male employee said to him, “Have a good workout, faggot.”
Evans said he was stunned and the comment didn’t immediately register.
“Have a good workout, faggot,” the employee repeated, this time even louder.
“He wanted me to hear him, he wanted me to respond, and the only thing I could say was, ‘You too,’” Evans said.
Evans said he proceeded to the locker room and tried to work out but was unable to because he was too upset. Before leaving the gym, he went back to the front desk and asked the male employee for his name.
“He said, ‘What for?’ and I said, ‘You know what you said and you’re going to pay for it,’” Evans said.
Evans said the employee handed over a business card identifying him as Mark Ramirez, a membership counselor.
Evans said he’s since contacted LA Fitness’ corporate office and spoken with the general manager of the local gym. He said he’s unsure what the company’s response will be, but hopes to see Ramirez terminated and barred from working at any other LA Fitness location.
In addition to contacting Dallas Voice, Evans said he had a friend post an account of the incident on Facebook, and he’s been encouraging other people to contact the gym to complain.
“It has blown up, which is what I want it to do,” Evans said. “I just want the community to know what happened to me, and the simple fact is that the majority of the male members there are gay, and I want them to know what happened. Let them choose what they want to do after they know about it.
“This is about justice,” said Evans, a member of both the Cathedral of Hope and the Turtle Creek Chorale. “It’s about hate and homophobia and it happened right here in our community, in a gym where a majority of the male members are gay. This is something that I’ve never done, but at 36, I’ve just had enough. I want the community to know what happened to me. Once it happens to me, it happens to all of us, we all take the hit.”
Please let us know what LA Fitness’ response is on this, if they even respond. My company recently introduced them as a benefit to us for discounted rates. If LA won’t respond, I’m sure my HR department would like to know about this incident, as it could affect their decision on whether or not to continue their affiliation with LA. Thanks for bringing this to the community’s attention!
What you think homosexuals are? Don’t be offended because a person calls it what it is. It don’t matter if the homos are female…a faggot, queer, bullshit thang or an abominable human. The USA is the worse country ever to allow this type of bullshit prevail. Whoever condones it is also worthy of death as your Bible states…President and mainly the Supreme Court judges.
How sad that happened to such a nice person! I’ve know Jason for a while and he’s always so nice and polite and has a smile on his face. Well, I’m off to Gold’s! Come with?
Can someone give us the Facebook page to go to? Been searching for it with no luck…….
Absolutely ridiculous. I think our agency gives us an incentive for LA too, I WONT BE GOING, discount or no discount – aint worth it. Unless of course, LA responds appropriately. Let us know wont you DV?
I actually talked to my Buddy that works there, his co-worker accused of saying that he said is the nicest guy ever and its almost comedic that he would ever say anything of that sort.. Plus look at these comments… If i Post on here that Terrorist goto that GYM will you believe me right away and goto Gold’s… You prob would you retard Lil’carl… LA is sueing all papers that printed “THAT WAS SAID BY AN EMPLOYEE” and have every right too, they cant soo much websites for lieable or slander, but I swear, listen to these people…
I hope they sue the hell out of the guy accusing LA Fitness of saying that…
Ok point 1- If a bad incident happens to you (whether gender attack or racial, whatever) what do you sincerly want to happen? I want that person to apologize to me immediately. What i feel from that moment would definetly begin to heel within time. (Notice no law suit, no exposure, no accusation.)
Point 2- If “Evan” was treated in this manner, why did he not respond immediatly? For example: “excuse me sir what did you say?”, or “I’m sorry what did you say”? or “Pardon me I didn’t catch that”? There would have been nothing wrong with a little verification. No fist fights or accusations.
I work in Customer Service and see this type of thing happen all the time, whethere it’s real or not. 99% of the time the customer thinks that we meant somthing to their liking, not actually what the policy says.
Another question is did Evan give LA Fitness time to respond before blowing it up to this? Hell No!! I would of waited atleast 1 week, just to make sure their offices had time to respond.
It sounds to me like someone is after some “Money” and doesn’t want to work anymore..
LA Fitness is a nice place and it’s ashame someone that doesn’t really know what happened or didn’t happen is after them. (No verification!!) Everything “Evan” has so said is all heresay. He said she said stuff. I can’t believe this has turned into High school.
Hope LA Fitness can beat this nasty rap.
I go to that gym and 2 mo’s ago signeda 3 year membership. I will certainly check out who this guys is.
Now I know ”
there are more important things going on in the world,” as I was told by my VERY gay-friendly and gay rights advocate friend last night. However, how would you feel. Evan is probably not making this up. Put yourself in his position. No matter what your race, sex, or orientation, how would you feel being called a disparaging word by an employee of ANY place where you chose to spend your money? I say we need to make a mountain out of this and make an example of them. It seems that LA Fitness is sweeping this under the rug and threatening a suit. A protest doesn’t cost anything. I’m also tired of rolling over. We’re all big boys and girls now and although it may not be illegal to say what he said, we can certainly put our money in a different direction. I’m a member of LA Fitness up north and am shocked by the possibility of this.
Go to the top. Write the President. Write their PR department. Let them know how you feel and remind them of the consequences. If this DID happen, which I’m pretty sure it did, an apology BY the company and a termination are in order. I would certainly fire any employee who did that. By letting this little thing go, we give them the power. They probably weren’t expecting so many gay patrons at that location. There IS a way to show that we have power in a professional way.
Really THINK about the last line of that post, “Once it happens to me, it happens to all of us, we all take the hit.”
I can’t believe so many of us, straight and gay, are just rolling over and going on about our business. I’m doing my part to find out the truth, and so far, it appears to someone at LA Fitness in the wrong.
Hey John Wright! What’s the latest on this situation? Has anyone from LA Fitness called you, or Jason back? I’ve already spoken to my HR rep, who is very interested in what happened and would like to know more.
My partner and I belong to this gym. I just called and spoke with the manager on duty, Chris, after reading this article. He told me the employee had been terminated, the district manager went immediately to the location to address issue, staff meetings have been held, and customer service efforts have been increased. I enjoy working out there and have never had a problem. Hopefully this is an isolated issue and sounds as if they have addressed it accordingly.
Thanks for the update. I like this gym a lot and do hope this is not a sentiment with the remaining employees.
Oh..I also did a customer review of this LA Fitness on Yelp and made reference to this incident.
https://www.yelp.com/
I encourage others to leverage our collective power to put businesses on notice that there is little tolerance for this behavior and recognize them when they take corrective action.
I think it is beyond the pale that this well liked, polite young man would make such a comment, but the only other witness in earshot, a lovely young gal who works the desk did NOT hear the alleged homophobic slur. In addition, this young gal who is the receptionist was alleged to have been “snippy” to Jason. I have known this young woman from another club where she worked for almost a year–she doesn’t get snippy with ANYONE!!!–she is a real sweetheart.
And lastly, the call in this article to “alert the community” has turned this thing into a witchhunt. Perhaps saddest of all, LA Fitness was unwilling to stand behind its employees, and the young man inquestion has been fired, rather than being transferrred to another gym which would have been the fairer thing to do.
I am of Jewish ancestry and this remiinds me of the line by Woody Alllen where he is telling his friend Max about these people who were so anti-Semitic they had the nerve to ask him before invitng him to a meal: “Did you eat yet?”….yet Woody heard it as: “Did Jew eat yet?”
In my opinion, the employee in question was unfairly defamed by the publication of his name in this article, the result of which he is on the street trying to find a way to feed his wife and baby. The young man is not a homophobe or an enemy of the gay commmunity, who has been turned into a sacraficial lamb to appease L.A. Fitness’s gay clientele threatening to take their business elsewhere. How very sad.
I agree with Howard. Transfer to a different LA Fitness. Its so wrong that Jason mentions the employees first AND last name in this blog. It was not right by any means or acceptable for that employee to make a comment like that to any customer but people need to find something better to complain about and move on. He’s been terminated. The end.