Q Toon: Never Gonna Pump You Up

Stephen Ross, billionaire chairman of something called Related Companies, hosted a lavish fund raiser in the Hamptons last weekend for the reelection of his longtime buddy Donald Joffrey Trump as President of the United States.

Ordinarily, some billionaire throwing his lot in with the most plutocratic president this nation has ever produced wouldn't be worth rolling one's eyes over, but Related Companies happens to own a couple of fitness companies that have actively courted LGBTQ consumers, Equinox and SoulCycle. And those customers aren't happy with the prospect of their membership dues supporting the Corrupt Trump Administration and its anti-LGBTQ minions in any way.

All but five of the 91 Equinox and SoulCycle locations, moreover, are located in districts that voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton last time around. You don't find a lot of trendy fitness gyms in Boondocks Junction, Nebraska.

So anyway, Equinox and SoulCycle gay-list customers are tearing up their $3,000+ membership cards and mounting a boycott.

Management of the companies issued statements last week distancing themselves from the man at the top.

Melanie Whelan, CEO of SoulCycle, issued a personal, more emphatic statement later as well.
“At SoulCycle, we wake up every day committed to our community, and creating a safe space where all are welcome,” Whelan’s statement reads. “We believe in diversity, inclusion and equality."
She went on to say that she doesn't endorse the Trump fundraiser and says her company has nothing to do with it.
Her statement reiterated that Ross is a "passive investor," but that framing only created more anger in many Equinox and SoulCycle members who pointed out that passive or not, Ross still makes a profit through his stake in the brands. 

As is typical of financial dealings these days, Ross's "passive investor" relationship status is better described as "complicated."

It is true that Related is a minority investor in Equinox, which in turn owns SoulCycle. (As Dan Primack of Axios has explained, Related used to own a majority of Equinox but has sold stakes to other investors over the years, diluting its own position.) It’s also true that Ross owns just 60 percent of Related. So a majority of Equinox’s and SoulCycle’s profits are not accruing to Ross personally.
But “minority” ownership does not equal “passive” ownership, and the siting decisions for Equinox gyms and SoulCycle studios are heavily tied up in Related’s broader development strategy. Related is the landlord for many Equinox and SoulCycle locations, especially in New York, because Related seeks to place them where they will enhance the value of Related’s residential and office developments. This includes Related’s Hudson Yards megadevelopment on the West Side of Manhattan, which contains a flagship Equinox gym and the first-ever Equinox-branded hotel in addition to about a thousand apartments, millions of square feet of office space, and, of course, a SoulCycle studio.

At some point, the top 1% of the top 1% are going to figure out how to sponsor their Republican fund raisers anonymously so as not to upset the rest of the top 10%. In the meantime, those of us in the lower 90% can pat ourselves on the back for having boycotted SoulCycle and Equinox before it was cool.