Gym membership

Its a good question. If they do discounts for couples then legally they need to do them for gay couples so I guess there is nothing stopping you getting the offer, except if they ask you and your mate to prove you're a couple

haha=) to be honest if a male or female walked up to the counter and wanted to pay for a couples membership the gym wouldn't be refusing their €1000. They would simply ask the other person in the couple should pop in and get their photo taken for the ID card. So if I were you go along and fill out the application and pay the money. Once they've taken you're money there's no way they're going to question your sexuality. If they ask during the application just say you're partners- the connotation is that you're gay but it could equally mean you're 50/50 partners in a Hornby train set If you say 'he's my partner' the gym assistant isn't going to turn around and ask "so you're ****ing each other?" as a qualifying question, just as they wouldn't ask it to a hetro couple.

Your only potential problem with this plan is that if the gym assistant serving you is gay himself. Either he'll spot your story with his gaydar or he'll fall for it hook, line and sinker and then you and your mate are working out and this gay gym instructor keeps winking at ye !

Del2005 wrote: »

IIRC it's illegal to ask, as it could be considered discrimination to ask 2 same sex people if they are a couple and not a mixed sex couple.

ah yeah it was said in jest. Thought I don;t think it is necessarily illegal to ask - if a gym had a rule saying 'All couples must prove themselves to be couples in order to avail of the couples membership offer' then they wouldn't be discriminating against gay couples because the rule says 'All couples' so it would be legal to do that and if two men approached the counter looking for a discounted couple membership then they're perfectly entitled to ask them if they are actually a couple, provided they are doing the same with hetro couples. It can only be discrimination if two sets of people are being treated differently and the burden of proof is on the person taking the case so a gay couple would need to prove that straight couples got preferential treatment for discrimination to actually exist.

The reality of it all on the ground though is that gyms are desperate for membersips right now and I'd say they couldn't care less if two aliens walked up with €1000 looking for a couples membership, they'd just sell it to them.

I doubt any gym really cares that the two people involved are a couple, to them they just want two people paying for membership instead of only one.

Marketing wise they may dress it up as a couples offer, but the reality is they just want extra people giving them money. So for a gym to take issue with who the two people are would actually be missing the point of their own promotion. They should spread the word about this "loophole", and then laugh all the way to the bank as people pick their gym simply on the basis of said loophole.

Of course, people are irrational in general, and I can see some staff taking umbrage at the very idea that people will game the system, so who knows how they will react.