CrossFit Sends Email To Its Members Saying Pride Is A Sin, Executive Doubles Down In A Wild Anti-Gay Twitter Rant
Source - Trainers at CrossFit Infiltrate, located in downtown Indianapolis, had planned a workout to celebrate Indy Pride, set for this weekend. When gym owners got wind of it, they shut down the planned event. Members were understandably upset, and some threatened to pull out of the gym. That’s when gym owners doubled down and shot off this email, provided reported by Fox59:
“Our underlying goal for the staff and members at CrossFit Infiltrate and our other gyms CrossFit White River and University Ave CrossFit, is total health and well-being for the individual and the community. Total health involves the body, the emotions, relationships, and the spirit. At the foundational detractor from health, as we believe God sets the parameters for, is pride. We believe that true health forever can only be found within humility, not pride. Humility is seeing oneself as they truly are, and as God truly defines them to be. As a business we will choose to deploy our resources towards those efforts and causes that line up with our own values and beliefs.”
Russell Berger, who wears the monicker of CrossFit’s Chief Knowledge Officer, went all-in on Twitter praising the local owners and attacking the LGBTQ community as sinners. He deleted some of his comments from Twitter.
In response to all of this, the head coach and general manager of CrossFit Infiltrate resigned, leading to the closing of the gym, according to Will Lanier, executive director of OutWOD, an organization that harnesses health and workouts to LGBTQ charitable causes.
Pride is a sin? Russell baby, that haircut is a sin.
CrossFit alienating the gay community would be like Barstool alienating college students. And I’m not one of these people who thinks everyone should host some sort of pride event. If a business doesn’t want to take advantage of a community with a massive amount of disposable income by throwing a rainbow flag in its window for a month, that’s on them. All I’m saying is that businesses who don’t are foolish. Especially if A) they’ve already announced it, and B) a significant amount of their income comes from it. Abs are gay currency, a lot of guys (myself excluded) are willing to spend thousands of dollars on douchey workout programs to get them. So jokes on you, CrossFit.
The craziest part of this story for me (other than the doubling down, we’ll get to that in a minute) is the lack of self awareness on the part of the gym manager.
We believe that true health forever can only be found within humility, not pride. Humility is seeing oneself as they truly are, and as God truly defines them to be.
Wild statement from a company that encourages its members to post shirtless photos of themselves online. Not only that, doesn’t going to the gym change the way that God intended you to be? Strange.
Anyway, the doubling down of the executive, while ridiculous, isn’t exactly shocking. There’s a growing narrative that LGBT people are intolerant of those who disagree with their “lifestyle.” The problem with that argument is that being gay isn’t a lifestyle. Lifestyles are something you choose, like drug dealing. Being gay is a part of someones DNA. Same with skin color and gender.
To say you “don’t agree with it” is saying like you don’t agree with someone for being black.
Again, I’m not saying business should be required to host a pride night. I could care less if someone hosts a pride event. I’m just saying that businesses and people shouldn’t be able to come out and say they fundamentally disagree with people for who they are. That’s what assholes do.