A man has alleged that he experienced a homophobic incident in FLYEfit Gym in Portobello. In a Twitter thread, the man says he was called a faggot and physically threatened by another gym member.

He alleges that after reporting the homophobic incident to a member of staff at the gym, he was told to speak with the man who threatened him.

He adds that the staff member then asked him to share a machine with the person.

“The manager shouted at me to calm down when I was trying to say I didn’t feel comfortable sharing a machine let alone a gym with someone who had just used a slur and threatened me.”

The victim says that another member of staff then stepped in and attempted to defuse the situation. The victim was asked by this staff member to leave for his own safety.

“Luckily then another member of staff stepped in (unfortunately I didn’t get his name) and asked for me details and said he’d be speaking to the man who threatened me and asked me to leave for my safety.”

He ends the thread saying how he unhappy he is with how the incident was handled.

“I left incredibly shaken by the incident and I’m not happy at all about how this was handled by [Flyefit] staff. At the moment [I] don’t feel comfortable or safe in your gyms. It’s all well and good [to] promote yourselves as ‘inclusive’ but no policy in place when issues like this arise.”

The LGBT+ community have shared their thoughts on the incident on Twitter, Dylan from the band ELM shared an experience where he says he was “beaten to the ground” for telling a “homophobic man he isn’t allowed call me “faggot”.”

Tonie Walsh added:

“Bad form on @flyefit to take the position it did initially. Hope this is resolved in a meaningful way.”

A spokesperson for FLYEfit Gyms told GCN they are taking the reported incident seriously and have started an internal investigation:

“FLYEfit has received a report from a Member and is taking this report very seriously. FLYEfit supports a culture of diversity and Inclusiveness and has policies and procedures in place to ensure our standards in this area are fully upheld. We intend to speak with the Members concerned and the staff who were on duty so that we have a full understanding of what occurred and we will take action on that basis.”