Tuesday 26 July 2016

This ‘Queer Gym’ Is Giving LGBTQ Members A Safer Place To Sweat

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When Xavier Morales was transitioning from female to male in 2013, he found a vital source of support in an unlikely place: the gym.   

The 36-year-old data evaluation analyst, who came out as transgender in early 2013 and embarked on his transition later that year, began working out at The Perfect Sidekick in Oakland, California, in preparation for top surgery, or chest masculinization. The Perfect Sidekick (hereafter referred to as TPS) is open to everyone, but caters specifically to the LGBTQ community, placing an emphasis on addressing the unique challenges members of the community face. Morales says TPS was a nexus of encouragement and comfort on many levels during a time that was tough both physically as well as emotionally for him. He also believes such support in a time of change is key for members of the LGBTQ community, and particularly for trans people.

Because as much as the transgender conversation may be more in the open now, the passage of laws like North Carolina’s Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act prove that resistance persists in some quarters. The law obliges trans people in schools and government buildings to use the bathroom that corresponds with their “biological sex,” defined as the one “stated on a person’s birth certificate,” and therefore not the one that transgender people like Morales identify with. “I have always thought that everyone should be individually responsible to open their minds and do what they need to do, but now, with all that’s going on, TPS has shown me that it’s important for small businesses like gyms to do their part, to be responsible and open-minded and to create safe spaces for transgender people,” Morales tells SELF.

Fostering an atmosphere that makes her clients feel totally comfortable was always TPS founder Nathalie Huerta’s intention.

As she moved from “more feminine” to the self-described “butch lesbian” that she now proudly is, Huerta herself found it very hard to fit in at the gym. She’d always been athletic and she thrived in a gym, but the constant scrutiny—sometimes expressed as outright hostility—she met both while working out and in the women’s locker room made her “begin to think about things I had never thought about before, and that discomfort created a set of dynamics that I now had to factor into my gym time,” she tells SELF.

Based on the number of requests she received when she advertised herself as a lesbian personal trainer, she realized it was time to act. “I thought to myself that if the experience of going to a gym was already so bad for someone like myself, who was always comfortable with working out, how bad could it be for someone who’s not been to a gym and wants to get in shape, but on top of everything else, needs to worry about their sexuality, how they express themselves, and the general culture around those mind games,” she says.

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She founded TPS in 2010 with the intention of creating a safe, strong community that was welcoming to and cognizant of the needs of LGBTQ clients.

The fully-equipped gym currently has 150 members and Huerta intends on capping membership at 175, because anything more than that would dilute the gym’s mission of building relationships and fostering a tight-knit community of members and trainers. The gym offers all the facilities you’d expect from a gym—equipment, training, and classes—but adds details you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. At the outset of every single class, attendees introduce themselves by name and inform others of the pronoun by which they wish to be referred. This is extremely important, says Morales, in making gym members feel comfortable, understood, and accepted.

“It’s great to be in a place where there’s so much sensitivity and awareness,” he says.

Every six months, Huerta organizes a “Queer 101” workshop, which is mandatory for all her trainers but is also open to the broader community so they may come in and learn more about the gay and lesbian world. “Many people are still so unsure when it comes to gay and lesbians, and often they don’t get into relationships because they’re afraid of being culturally insensitive,” she says. “The whole point of Queer 101 is to create a space where anyone can ask any question they have, bring up issues they’re curious about or that they think are not appropriate. The meeting is a safe place to ask those questions and the more questions people ask, the more the conversation gets going and the community becomes visible.” The workshop fits in nicely with the motto emblazoned over the door to TPS (aka The Queer Gym): “You know you’re curious.”

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TPS founder Nathalie Huerta

Huerta is hoping to organize a “Trans 101” workshop by the end of the year.

Currently, 15 percent of the gym’s client base is transgender. Huerta is still learning about the community herself, and educating her trainers to properly serve the trans community means working closely with medical professionals—including endocrinologists and surgeons—to learn about the effects of hormone therapy and pre- and post-surgery requirements on the body, in order to be able to craft individualized training programs.

Knowing that TPS trainers receive such in-depth education is a great source of comfort for Morales. “When I first started taking testosterone, I was feeling incredibly empowered and energetic, but the trainers were very careful to not let me do more than they thought I could handle, so I wouldn’t risk getting injured,” he says. “When my surgeon told me I should be working on my core and lower body, Nathalie suggested I do yoga, and it’s great that TPS offers such a variety of different kinds of classes.”

More important than the classes and the training, though, Morales is happy with the continued support of the broader gym community. “In the weeks leading up to my top surgery, the trainers announced it in the gym and one of the members offered to coordinate my post-op care,” he says. “I was off work for two or three weeks after the procedure and thanks to her coordination, I had people come from TPS to keep me company and bring me food. That level of support is very important.”

Morales views transition as a lifelong process, but today, he says, “I feel like I’ve accomplished my physical goals for transitioning: I can pass as a cis-gendered man—albeit a very short man—in public and am able to access male-only spaces with relative ease and comfort.”

His newfound confidence has much to do with TPS. The gym “has offered me something that no other mainstream gym has been able to: a safe place to lay down the stepping stones towards the body and life I’ve always wanted while being surrounded by the warmth of the LGBT community,” Morales says. “TPS got me feeling good about my body before my top surgery and for a trans person to say they feel good about their body before having any surgeries is a pretty phenomenal thing.”

The post This ‘Queer Gym’ Is Giving LGBTQ Members A Safer Place To Sweat appeared first on SELF.

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