Idiot of the Week: Far-right influencer Chaya Raichik Triggers at least 54 threats have been received by Planet Fitness locations

People on the far-right of the political spectrum continue to incite hatred, intolerance and suggest violence against people who don't subscribe to their agendas of hate. This week's idiot is far-right influencer Chaya Raichik who triggered  followers to make at least 54 threats by Planet Fitness locations.  When can these people be arrested? Can't these right-wing nuts just live their lives without trying to destroy other people who just want to live theirs? Here's the horrible story about this idiot and a BONUS IDIOT who appointed this bigot to ban books from all of Oklahoma School libraries. 

(Because of an Idiot:)  How an inclusive gym brand became a battlefield over LGBTQ+ rights

At least 54 threats have been received by Planet Fitness locations following attacks by far-right influencer Chaya Raichik 

By Taylor Lorenz and Gus Garcia-Roberts, Washington Post, April 28, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

John Hart-Battles, a 17-year-old high school junior in Oklahoma, joined Planet Fitness last June to keep in shape as a member of his school’s color guard team. As a young gay man, he liked Planet Fitness’s focus on inclusivity, an approach that turned it into one of the leading fitness brands in the United States. He started going twice a week.

But for the past few weeks, he, like many LGBTQ+ Planet Fitness patrons and staffers, has stayed away, as at least 54 bomb threats have been made to Planet Fitness locations across the country, many of which led to evacuations. “It’s one of my worst fears, to be hate crimed, specifically in a locker room,” said Hart-Battles, who called the attacks on Planet Fitness “very unsettling.”

But the pattern is familiar to LGBTQ+ activists, who link the wave of threats to far-right influencer Chaya Raichik, who runs the social media account @libsoftiktok. She has made Planet Fitness the object of critical posts since early March, when Planet Fitness revoked the membership of a woman in Alaska who complained about “a man shaving in a women’s bathroom” and posted a photo of the person online.

Though the threats and evacuations have directly affected only a relative few of the chain’s 2,600 locations in the United States, the attacks have caused fear and anxiety among LGBTQ+ people across the country, some of whom said they are now too anxious to use their local Planet Fitness or set foot in the locker room.

“Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity,” a Planet Fitness spokesperson said in a statement following the Alaska incident. “The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being terminated.”

Raichik, who operates the Libs of TikTok account on X and Instagram, declined to comment for this story. She previously has denied responsibility for threats leveled at businesses, schools and hospitals she has criticized for LGBTQ+ inclusive policies.

After the Alaska incident, Raichik criticized Planet Fitness’s trans-inclusive policies and encouraged her more than 3 million followers to boycott the chain. She has posted dozens of times since, encouraging followers to protest the gym in an effort to “take back our country” and documenting updates in a thread that she titled “PLANET FITNESS BLOODBATH MEGA THREAD.”

In late March, she posted a video interview with Planet Fitness’s co-founder and former CEO, Michael Grondahl, who left the company in 2013. “I’d want to go in there and freakin’ take the guy by the neck and throw him out in the parking lot,” Grondahl said in the interview. “That’s the way that things would’ve been done a while back.”

Violent threats have followed Raichik’s tweets before, including dozens of bomb threats against LGBTQ+ pride events, children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care, drag queen story hours, and at least two dozen public schools and libraries. Schools in California, Colorado and Oklahoma have canceled classes and evacuated students following Libs of TikTok posts about them. Raichik recently compared her Planet Fitness posts with last year’s controversy after Anheuser-Busch paid a trans influencer to tout a beer brand in an Instagram post. “This might be the most successful boycott since Bud Light,” she said. 

BONUS IDIOT:  Oklahoma superintendent makes Libs of TikTok an adviser for school libraries

 Oklahoma's superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters, announced he was appointing right-wing social media influencer Chaya Raichik — best known for her controversial Libs of TikTok social media accounts — to an advisory role on the state's Library Media Advisory Committee. That will allow her to help determine which books are appropriate for Oklahoma school libraries.    The appointment of Chaya Raichik, the social media menace known for spurring harassment campaigns against liberals, shows how trolls hold sway over the GOP.

 FOR THE REST OF THE STORY: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/28/planet-fitness-bomb-threats-trans-lgbtq/?utm_source=cordial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hp-us-reg-morning-email_2024-04-29&email_hash=52815a7ab151d17f21a7d8f64c6397e55c32e745