A female gym owner has been attacked online for banning transgender women from her “single-sex” venue.
Natalee Barnett, the founder of The Girls Spot gym, faced fury from trans activists on social media after saying the club would only be open to biological females.
Before the gym’s launch in Wandsworth, London, Barnett posted a social media video where she said the establishment would be a “single-sex space for biological women”.
The influencer, with almost 70 million followers on TikTok, has been raising money to open the gym since 2021, and initially said it would be open to trans women.
The influencer, with almost 70 million followers on TikTok, has been raising money to open the gym since 2021
However, in a recent video, she changed her stance, saying she had realised that female safety meant only allowing biological females to join.
Barnett said the women applying to join the gym had been victims of “some level of gym intimidation or sexual violence and assault that has been perpetrated by men”.
Transgender activists claimed Barnett's policy would go against equality laws, and demanded refunds for donors who believed it would be a trans-inclusive space.
Activist and lawyer Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu claimed trans women were also the victims of harassment and warned the policy would be difficult to enforce.
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She said: “How will you police it to identify ‘biological women’? If you are excluding medically transitioned trans women, would you let in trans men because of their biological sex?”
“I don’t think medically transitioned trans women should be excluded and definitely trans men who’ve medically transitioned should be excluded like other men.”
In a 2021 video on TikTok, Barnett said: “You guys are hearing it first. Of course, trans women are welcome at my women-only gym. I don’t see trans women as ‘trans women’ – I see trans women as women.”
“And if you identify as a woman, then you are of course welcome.”
However, she claimed she previously “hadn’t thought out the vision… or what it would entail”, but had since figured it out.
In her video this weekend, Barnett said: “The Girls Spot gym exists as a safe space for women because women are facing gym harassment, sexual assault and sexual violence inside of gyms, and I know that because I’m a victim of it. So the meaning of The Girls Spot gym is now entirely different.”
She added: “The majority of women who are seeking my women-only gym, The Girls Spot, are coming here because they have faced some level of gym intimidation or sexual violence and assault that has been perpetrated by men.”
“So, as the owner of the gym, it is very important to make it clear how my women’s only gym will be operating, and it’ll be operating as a single-sex space for biological women.”
The gym will focus on self-defence classes and workshops around the menstrual cycle and polycystic ovary syndrome
The gym will focus on self-defence classes and workshops around the menstrual cycle and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, said Barnett was “well within her legal rights” to only allow biological females to join the fitness club.
She added : “There are thousands of gyms in the country, almost all open to both sexes.
"It’s very telling that there is so much vitriol aimed at one woman running one small gym, just because she wants a male-free space.”
