Canadian women's gym gets OK to bar men

November 22, 2006

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian women's fitness gym was cleared on Tuesday of charges that it illegally discriminated against a man by barring him from becoming a customer.

A British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal said Ralph Stopps was not unfairly hurt by being refused membership in Just Ladies Fitness, which markets itself to women who do not want to use coed facilities.

"In the circumstances of this case, treating Mr. Stopps the same as these women would actually result in an adverse consequences for these women," the tribunal wrote, saying that Stopps had the option of using other coed gyms.

Stopps said he tried to join the gym because it was near his home in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, but the tribunal said there was a coed facility that was actually closer.

The gym is part of a fitness chain that has 40,000 women members. Of its 300 employees only four are men -- one of whom is the company's president and founder.