Curves gym boycott based on facts?

[sarahmichigan]

It has been circulating around the Web that the owner of the all-women's gym , Gary Heavin, is heavily anti-abortion and gives to anti-abortion causes. Only, the truth is not so black-and-white. He does give money to pregnancy care clinics that counsel adoption rather than abortion, and he does give to a teen sex ed program that advocates abstinence. But he is not linked with any of the more radical groups that tote signs with bloody fetuses or blockade Planned Parenthood. And he gives money to a lot of other good causes, like health care clinics that treat the homeless.

Good article in salon.com today clarifying the facts, and pointing out that there are other options besides boycotting (which mainly hurts small-time local franchise owners, many of whom are women). Other options are to donate to Planned Parenthood in Hevin's name, or wear pro-choice gear to your workout, or encourage other gym members to donate to pro-choice causes.

I still wouldn't go there, because I think the plan is too "one-size-fits-all" and I hate that their program book is sprinkled with scriptural passages. But, maybe they're not *quite* as evil as I'd thought.

Edited due to anisoptera's input: Saying he's "not linked" with radical anti-abortion groups is not entirely accurate, either. He does talk with some anti-abortion wackos, and they support what he does. However, *according to the piece in salon.com*, he doesn't actually give money *directly* to any group whose main mission is opposing Planned Parenthood or lobbying against abortion rights.

Comments

Preg

[leighton.livejournal.com]

Good post. I'd heard about this, but did not know if it was really true.

Now I'll concentrate on the rumor that Home Depot's home office employees are highly "encouraged" to give to Bush / Cheney 04.

[aiela.livejournal.com]

Yeah, from what I've read, franchise owners give a flat amount of $ to corporate on a monthly basis, so having less members just hurts them - I think the thing to do in this situation is to find out just what the individual franchise owner is supporting with their earnings, if anything.

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

I never bought pizza from Domino's when Tom Monahan owned it so until Heavin sells Curves I probably will not go back there. One the groups he supports claims Planned Parenthood is a haven for pedophiles.

BTW, the Curves plan is no more one-size-fits all then the two personal trainers I have worked out with. I really liked the place. Sigh.

Link

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

Here is the link to a very nasty group Heavin give money to

http://www.operationsaveamerica.org/articles/articles/decline-pp-central-tx.htm

Curves..

[flyinglemurs.livejournal.com]

Still reading through the journal...
I signed up for Curves a while back. I was leery at first as I heard they play mostly Christian rock..but mine doesn't, and neither do either of the other 2 I've been to.

The plus side is, you go in, you do the workout, which isn't too hard and you can take it easy or really work it however you want, you are there maybe 30 minutes and then you go home. They don't push things at you, and there is no rah rah. I went to Weight Watchers once and the rah rah drove me away.

But, you have a definate point about the repetitiveness. You can vary it some, but not that much. You still need to go in a circle and change when the thing says or you would mess up other people. On one hand if you can get into that sort of meditative auto-pilot thing where you go in a circle and just aren't really thinking about it, its fine. But if you can't get into that mode then it is a bit dull. Which may explain why I haven't been in a while. And on a nice day I'd rather walk outside anyway. As I don't like exercise anyway though, getting it over with and having it all pre-defined is kind of a bonus for me. So far.

And oh, the people that work there can't measure for anything. They told me my arm was 8 inches bigger from one session to the other..surrrre it is. And it has nothing at all to do with them measuring it in a totally different spot huh? So anyone going there, watch out for that.