When aspiring gym owner Natalee Barnett first proposed her idea for a women-only gym called The Girls Spot back in 2021, the internet was on board. That was thanks in part to Barnett’s assurance that the gym would be a safe space for all women, trans folks included.
“Respectfully, if you have a problem with trans women attending my gym then you can find another gym to train at,” she posted to social media in 2021. “I have discussed this several times before. trans women are women and also a minority that need to be protected. Please keep your transphobia away.”
But as Barnett’s dream came closer to being a reality, she walked back those inclusionary policies. In fact, in a since-deleted video from March 9 that went massively viral, Barnett said that only cisgender women would be allowed in her gym.
“When I made that tweet in 2021, I had just announced my plans to open a women’s only gym. I hadn’t thought out the vision or the mission of what it would entail,” she said. “The Girls Spot Gym exists as a safe space for women because we’re now facing gym harassment, sexual assault, and sexual violence inside of gyms and I know that because I am a victim of it. The meaning for The Girls Spot gym is now entirely different.”
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“It will be operating as a single-sex space for biological women,” Barnett continued. “It is imperative that I stick to the vision and the mission and ensure that these women feel safe.”
Though Barnett may claim to have noble goals, her proposed rules system has quite a few logistical problems (even without considering its blatant anti-transness). So, only cis women are allowed — but how exactly will the gym be verifying that? Will prospective patrons have to strip at the door? Will masc-presenting women be turned away? Sex, gender identity, and gender expression simply aren’t cut-and-dried enough for Barnett’s policy to work in practice.
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And of course, there’s the inherent transphobia of Barnett’s logic to contend with. If her intention was to provide a space for women to exercise without men around, why would trans women be excluded, unless she doesn’t see them as equal to cis women? The whole situation has major TERF vibes; one user even referred to The Girls Spot as the “jk rowling gym.”
Barnett’s video went so viral that there’s even discourse about the discourse itself, including the fact that the internet, by and large, isn’t letting transphobia fly. “I do however like that that girl banned trans women from her gym and expected a positive response and instead she got quite the opposite,” wrote one user. “maybe we’re not cooked!!!
Barnett returned to social media with a follow-up video explaining her reasoning, but ultimately, her points remained the same. “The decision to have The Girls Spot as a single sex gym for those biologically female was not an easy decision and something that I thought over for many years,” she wrote in the video’s caption. “It was absolutely not a choice made lightly or out of exclusion or malice, but rather out of my commitment to ensuring a space where women who have experienced trauma, harassment, or discomfort in co-ed gyms can feel at ease. That has always been my mission and drive behind the business.”
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