Muslim Woman Sues Gym For Refusing To Allow Head Covering

The Albuquerque Journal reported yesterday on a religious and racial discrimination lawsuit filed in New Mexico state court by a Muslim woman (who is also African-American) who was not permitted to enter a Planet Fitness gym because she was wearing a head covering. A Planet Fitness attorney says the gym did not know the head covering was for religious purposes and that it violated the gym's dress code that prohibits jeans, work boots, bandanas, skull caps and revealing apparel. Plaintiff Tarainia McDaniel, who holds a two-year membership in the gym, says she was told that while the dress code was sometimes waived, it could not be in her case because her head covering was red. The lawsuit alleges racial and religious discrimination in violation of the New Mexico Human Rights Act and the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act.