After Planet Fitness Flap, Women Urge New Hampshire's Governor To Sign Locker Room Bill

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

When Judy Walcott was kicked out of the Planet Fitness gym in Concord for complaining about a man in the women’s locker room, she had no idea the story would end with her standing outside a women’s restroom in the New Hampshire State House participating in a news conference.

Walcott’s story made national headlines, one of the skirmishes in the battle between women who want spaces safe from men and progressives who argue that men who identify as women are, in fact, women.

It also made her the centerpiece of Wednesday’s news conference, where Republicans like Rep. Erica Layon (R-Derry) argued cases like Walcott’s should convince Gov. Kelly Ayotte not to veto legislation protecting women’s-only spaces — the so-called “bathroom bill” — for a third time.

Standing outside the women’s bathroom on the second floor of the State House — and just a few feet from the governor’s office — Layon said the word “women” on the door is a lie.

“It’s a lie because the law today only protects women from some discrimination. Current law is simple: When a trans-identified person and a woman are in conflict over who can undress in front of whom, the woman loses,” Layon said. “This is just not right, and the legislature continues to put forward language to right this wrong.”

A State House press conference advocating passage of the so-called “bathroom bill” allowing the creation of women-only spaces, June 17, 2026.(CREDIT: Michael Graham)

Layon and the other women gathered Wednesday want Ayotte to sign SB 552, legislation that would make clear it is not unlawful discrimination under New Hampshire law to classify people by biological sex in certain limited circumstances, including multiperson bathrooms and locker rooms, athletic competitions, jails and prisons.

The bill does not require businesses, schools or public agencies to create sex-separated spaces. It says only that doing so based on biological sex would not violate the state’s anti-discrimination law.

For Walcott, the issue is not abstract.

“I recently lost my Planet Fitness membership because I recorded a suspicious man in a ladies’ locker room getting ready to take a shower,” Walcott said. “It was clear I was rattled. However, not only did staff not investigate, but I was labeled transphobic and ultimately canceled.”

Walcott said she later learned the man was “a convicted sex offender and stalker” who tracked her down at work. She said the incident is an example of what women are being asked to endure under policies that allow biological males into female-only spaces.

“We do not want to share our bodies with men we don’t choose, and we should not have to,” Walcott said. “Women’s rights belong to biological women only. And when it comes to safety, inclusion never should have been part of that equation, because when the clothes come off, it is all about biology.”

Ayotte has made it clear that she intends to veto SB 552 and a similar bill, just as she has done twice before. Asked about Wednesday’s news conference, Ayotte’s staff referred NHJournal to the governor’s previous veto statement.

“I vetoed a nearly identical bill to this one last year. I made it clear this issue needed to be addressed in a thoughtful, narrow way that protects the privacy, safety and rights of all Granite Staters. Unfortunately, there is minimal difference between Senate Bill 268 and the bill I vetoed last year, which Gov. Sununu vetoed the year prior.”

Ayotte’s vetoes put her in a small minority. Polls show Granite Staters support banning males from female spaces by a 3-to-1 margin. Even a plurality of Democrats agree. And yet nearly every Democratic legislator opposed this legislation as well.

Asked why her colleagues across the aisle would vote against women’s spaces legislation that their constituents overwhelmingly support, Layon could only speculate.

“It really seems like New Hampshire’s elected Democrats are really divorced from the typical Democrats in the state, most Democrats in the state, who are just regular people and think this (the bathroom bill) makes sense.”

Larkyn Sanford

Sixteen-year-old Larkyn Sanford also thinks it’s common sense. She told reporters she first got involved in the debate two years ago after hearing testimony from a man who said he would fully undress in a girls’ YMCA locker room.

“I, along with several older girls, did (have a problem with it), and we canceled our memberships,” Sanford said.

“Girls deserve better,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to advocate for our security, and this common-sense issue shouldn’t be up for debate in the New Hampshire State House. I came here from an overnight summer camp to speak this morning because the voice of my generation needs representation.”

Other women told personal stories, including having men come into the women’s restrooms in the State House.

Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O’Brien (R-Derry) recounted sharing the bathroom with former Rep. Stacie Laughton (D-Nashua), “who was widely celebrated for being the first transgender legislator.”

Laughton is currently awaiting sentencing on federal child sex crimes charges.

“I knew something was very wrong with Rep. Laughton, but I stayed silent, because there was nothing I could do. The law was not on my side,” O’Brien said.

Walcott said the lesson from her Planet Fitness experience is that women must speak up, even when doing so comes at a cost.

“Start joining the masses who are opposing it,” Walcott said when asked what she would tell other women in similar situations. “It’s not going to stop if we don’t say anything, because we are allowing ourselves to be manipulated.

“And I’m sorry, but not letting a man in that room is not discrimination. It says so on the door.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.