Girls Spot Gym under attack for being women only

[fromorbit]

A black woman Natalee Bennett who is setting up a woman only gym in SE London is being targeted because she has said the gym will not include men which legally she can do under the equality act. She had said 4 years ago "trans" males would be allowed to enter, but she has now changed her mind.

The Girls Spot operates as a female-only gym for biological women, tackling harassment, sexual assault & violence that women face inside the gym.

The tweet circling was made 4 years ago and I was in the very early stages of creating a concept.
https://x.com/nataleebfitness/status/1898805670339899593

She is now facing a massive swarm of misogynist and racist abuse against her including multiple death threats. The post about the gym being for women only now has 51 million views.

See some examples of the abuse:
x.com/babybeginner/status/1899060758664896691

I suspect the abuse will peak a lot of people and prove the need for the gym to exist. Interestingly I suspect a lot of it derives from the US.

If you are in South East London you can register your interest in the gym here
https://thegirlspotgym.com/

Article about the gym from a few weeks ago before the controversy broke:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14355163/women-female-gyms-fitness-influencers-gymtimidation-rise.html

The US site Newsweek has picked up on the drama:

https://www.newsweek.com/gym-trans-women-ban-girls-spot-2042133

Of course it ignores the entirely different legal background in the UK.

Reddit

www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/s/mbKJWulNDw

Interesting that the people on reddit (and IG) seem to think its crowd funded. On IreneBritUSA's most recent post, she shows a video of Natalee where she states she put the money up to open it.

Between Biology and transition, which comes first in terms of protected characteristics?

I’ve just seen this on TikTok.
I hope she does well, and agree that the abuse she’s getting proves how much female only spaces are needed.

I just saw a vile comment from a transman saying she’s going to get surgery, all the hormones, bulk up and go to the gym to make the women feel uncomfortable, I mean, they can go to literally any other gym for that. What a twat! She’s already trying to opt out of her sex, why go the extra mile to ruin it for others? Fucking spiteful lot they are!

My dd is raging about this. She gets all her 'news' online and she's definitely of the opinion it was crowdfunded and won't hear of the counter-arguments. It's so tedious

It's the same on Twitter and it's really pissing me off. Those of us with PCOS (aside from the utter melts who claim that their PCOS makes them intersex which is just...) are really fucked off at our female endocrine disorder being used as a shitty gotcha.

We're not men. Our hirsutism doesn't make us men or make us somehow 'manly'. Our higher testosterone levels are nowhere near even the lowest level for men. We're women with a female disorder.

The abuse Natalee has been receiving has been horrifying. I hope she's OK.

Surely if it HASN'T taken place it can't be filmed.
More importantly enormous amounts of harassment HAVE taken place and I for one have been physically assaulted for daring to stand up for a girl who was pushed off a machine by her brother.

It’s such a shame that she has had so much abuse for trying to do something that men did for centuries!

If she makes it a membership only club and interviews prospective members ( like they do for golf clubs etc ) then she can allow only those people who will fit in with the ethos of her private club. The membership fee could be relatively small once only payment and then pay as you go

I have not said that harassment ay gyms does not take place, we all know that it does.
I would be happy with completely separate male and female gyms, even if they were separate in the same building,.
What I am talking about are those that have filmed in gyms and people have been able to disprove that harassment has not happened at all..

A few screenshots from that Reddit thread. Does anyone know anything about the tribunal referenced?

This is a summary of the tribunal: www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/breaking-news-ace-loses-second-gender-beliefs-tribunal-case

You will be Shocked that it doesn't say what they say it says.

Basically, woman compared gender critical beliefs to racism. When shit hit fan she recanted. Her employer continued to disciplinary at which point she resigned. Tribunal said the employer didn't follow their disciplinary procedures and also they believed that she was proper sorry guv honest so employer should have accepted that and drawn a line.

Deleted because cross posted.
https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/mrs-a-islam-wright-v-arts-council-england-and-c-ashcroft-2408555-slash-2022

In any case, the case is irrelevant because excluding males who claim to be women from a women-only gym is lawful.

Thanks to both of you for the explanations and the links.

https://www.instagram.com/nataleebarnett_/reel/DHBZpTvtaXU

I feel so bad for her, she's just trying to make a safe space for herself and other women, and now she feels she has to make video after video explaining this while trans activist idiots and abusers rage at her. It's heartbreaking.

Video here as well https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLezistance/comments/1j8zod7/fitness_influencer_nataleebfitness_refuses_to_let

A supportive opinion from America:

d

She uses a great phrase about all the libfem types abusing Natalee - "suicidal compassion and empathy".

I agree.

Dr Gad Saad has spoken publicly about what he termed 'suicidal empathy' and I think that, in this situation, that is what these women who are attacking Natalee are displaying.

https://www.northwood.edu/news/parasitic-ideas-and-suicidal-empathy-are-killing-the-west/

A few screenshots from that Reddit thread. Does anyone know anything about the tribunal referenced?

As pp said. Typical upside down TRA interpretation of course. AIW won her case because ACE didn't follow process. At no point did they say her comments were ok. There is a thread here. Is this fool even aware that they were also found to have discriminated against Denise Fahmy for her GC beliefs?

Gosh, the comments on that Instagram post 😦 Is Instagram always like that?

https://x.com/WomenReadWomen/status/1899500447163208071

Related. Some awful, patronising, obnoxious male activists attempting to bully a female spa worker in San Francisco over the spa's policy.

LOVE THIS WOMAN!

Trans activists deliberately went a Korean spa in San Francisco and attempted to publicly shame staff for their sex-based policy.

But she remained calm and collected, repeating the same logical point: a nude spa is segregated by sex, not fantasy "gender identities", to ensure the comfort and dignity of their patrons.

This is how it's done.

Unfortunately, I read that due to the law in California, the spa has had to change their policy.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5292291-imperial-spa-san-francisco-usa-incident-with-a-transman?reply=142784290&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share&utm_source=copylink

Oh that's a shame that's the problem with passing these things into law.

The change of mind complicates things - some are saying that she accepted investment from people on the basis of the gym allowing men and then just carried on after she changed her mind.

This is a big part of her problem, she was saying trans women were welcome whilst crowdfunding and once that was completed reversed her stance.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14485099/natalee-barnett-female-gym-trans-women-fitness.html

Well, I suppose some people - assuming they even donated - might be entitled to their money back, but it doesn't justify the abuse. It would be good to have some clarity about crowd funding, if there was any. I don't do Insta or TikTok, so she may have already addressed this.