Why Trans Activists Are Attacking This Gym Owner | Episode 14

Imagine going online to share an announcement about your dream business, a women's only gym in London, and also being brave enough to address the elephant in the room that we all have to address because it is 2025. Going online and stating that this women's only gym will be for biological women and biological women only, while also acknowledging that at one point in time, you had been wrong about the trans inclusion issue and that you had changed your mind and that this gym would be tailored to women and women only.
And immediately upon posting this video and making this announcement, you are shattered by a flood of death threats and attacks aimed directly at destroying you and destroying your business because you were brave enough to draw a line in the sand. That is what happened to Natalie Burnett this week.
And unfortunately, her story is one that we are now very well acquainted with.

Radical trans activism is still hell bent

on forcing men into women's private spaces,

whether that be gyms or social networking apps

or spas or even into Title IX.

And women from across the world are desperately fighting

to protect what is ours,

often at an incredibly brutal cost.

And today we actually have one of these women here to share her story. But before we dive into this story, make sure that you are following our podcast page and that you leave a rating if you're enjoying the show.
And if you want ad-free episodes and access to an exclusive newsletter and weekly Dear Brett advice videos, make sure to check out my subscriber-only platform called Cooper Confidential. The link is right here, or you can click the link in the description to check it out.
So by now, I'm sure that many of you all have seen Natalie's now viral video. I'm sure many of you guys have been following her story, but if you have not, I'm going to kind of set the scene here and give you some context.
So back in 2021, Natalie announced that she wanted to create a women's-only gym in her hometown of London and she has spent the last four years working towards that goal. Crowdfunding, trying to get investors, building the site, creating the business plan, branding.
She literally turned herself into a fitness influencer so that she could crowdfund and raise the money and make the money so that she could build this dream business of hers. And just last month, she announced that finally her gym, the Girl Spot, had secured a location and was closer than ever to opening.
On LinkedIn last month, she shared this. She said, the Girl Spot women's only gym has landed in Southwest London.
Here is my journey to raising a hundred grand. Every single investor said no or left me out to dry.
I went to endless networking events, sent daily cold emails, I got countless rejections. Trying to raise money from investors is not for the faint-hearted.
So I took matters into my own hands. And then she lists how she was able to raise over 60,000 pounds.
And then she goes on and says, I then decided to become my own investor and invest 50,000 pounds from my job as a full-time social media influencer. So why am I opening a women's only gym? And this is important.
71% of women are being harassed in the gym on a regular basis. A recent survey by Run Repeat found that 70% of women have experienced some form of unwanted attention while working out in mixed-gender gyms.
79% of women said that they would transfer to an all-women's gym to avoid sexual harassment. These are alarming statistics and there's more.
So today we are one step closer to tackling the issue that women's face in mixed gyms. Watch this space.
The girl's spot will shift the narrative. So from all angles, this is an incredible story.
This is a woman who had a dream and within the last four years has built that into a real business, who found a way to raise the money, who saw a real issue that she had experienced in her life as a woman that she saw plaguing her community and wanted to solve the issue. And obviously we should commend that at every level.
It is incredible watching people build the things that they dreamed of. And at this point, after her LinkedIn announcement, everything was great.
Her online community of millions and millions of fans was thrilled, people could not be more excited for this gym to open, people who lived all around the world were cheering her on because this was so important and so exciting, until she made that video last week on March 9th that changed everything. And that was the video where she told the world that because this gym was specifically designed to protect women and keep them safe and would be tailored to their needs, men and trans women would not be included.
Just take a listen. In 2021, four years ago, I made a tweet and the tweet referenced my women's only gym, the girl's sport and being trans inclusive.
Now, 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 or what it would entail, but all I knew is that I wanted to open a gym. The Girl 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 Girl Spot Gym is now entirely different.
And I say this to say that whilst we we are a gym Inside we are focusing on self-defense classes, Mai Tai, boxing classes As well as workshops and activations around PCOS and training on your menstrual cycle All of which occur to biological women majority of the women who are seeking my women's only gym the Girl 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.
And of course, for those of us who live in reality, if you're watching this video, it makes complete sense. There will be self-defense classes for women, classes about women's hormones, about healing from PCOS, training your cycle, things that only pertain, like she said, to biological women.
But of course, to a lot of people in the world, that just can't stand. And the world lost its damn mind.
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Now, while anyone can talk about endocrine disrupting products and talk about beef tallow, there are some things that only biological women can experience and some things that we just want to talk about privately with other women. But apparently that is not okay in 2025.
And so trans activists online exploded when they saw Natalie's video. Like guys, I don't know if I've ever seen a response like this before ever.
I mean, maybe we could compare it to JK Rowling, but this was unprecedented. Over 45 million people viewed her video on X.
It went viral on TikTok where she has over a million followers. It just became a war zone.
I mean, as you can see in these comments, people were calling her vile names. They were wishing death upon her, demanding refunds, saying that she had lied about the premise of this gym, even though from the beginning, she said that it was women's only gym.
And while supporters like JK Rowling were coming out of the woodwork to support her and rally behind her, the brutal attacks quickly drowned them out. I mean, again, over 45 million people watching this video and tearing into her.
And so the next day on March 10th, she made another video. She made a response basically begging people to stop, saying that she was not transphobic like people were claiming, but that she will in fact be standing firm in her decision.
Just take a listen.

What really saddens me is that so many people

are saying that I'm transphobic.

I thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly researched.

I seeked legal advice.

I spoke to communities.

I spoke to trans women themselves,

which I found very important to do so,

to see how to navigate all of this because I am not trans.

So obviously the decision to make it was not based on, excluding any individuals. It wasn't based on malice, nothing of the sort.
The decision was based on a simple fact that I have been sexually assaulted inside of a gym. That is why I stand here as a women's only gym owner.
I was sexually assaulted inside of a gym, which means a lot of trauma and a lot of emotion and well-being is behind this project. This is not just a gym.
And I think that last line that you guys just heard is so important. This is not just a gym.
This is not just another place where people can go and work out. I mean, there's plenty of gyms in London where people can go and work out.
This is specifically for women, designed for us, for our biological needs and our safety needs. It's designed to keep women like her, who have experienced harassment and sexual assault, it is designed to keep them safe.
Now, similar to what I just said, she also made the point that this is just one gym in the world, in all of London, and it is not some huge gym like LA Fitness where men and women can go and there's locker rooms for both of them. Like this is one tiny, tailored to women, specific gym.
If you are angry, you have other options. You can go elsewhere.
And I would add that actually you can go to one of the many queer gyms that London has to offer, which many people on X were quick to point out. Here's one, Bend Movement, accessible queer led fitness in London.
Another, Knockout LGBTQ plus boxing club for London's LGBTQ community. Team at workoutwithpride.co.uk.
Join Workout With Pride for a safe fitness group for the LGBTQIA plus community. Another one, Uplifting Trans Lives at Not A Phase, which is a free fitness and self-defense program in seven UK cities.
This gym is not trampling on your rights. You actually have a myriad of options.
You are welcome basically everywhere. Someone that is creating a gym specific for one community is not an assault on your rights.
And that is literally proven by the fact that you guys have your own gyms that is just for your community. I mean, it literally makes no sense.
So no, this outrage is not actually about access or inclusivity or fairness because you have a myriad of other options literally in the same exact city. What you're actually up in arms about is trying to force yourself into single-sex spaces for the sake of power point blank that is obviously all you care about.
And while I hate the fact that she even felt the need to make that video and to be sympathetic in the slightest to the people who are wishing death upon her, I am so glad that she did not fold. I'm so glad that after four years of creating this gym and building this space, she did not throw it all away because of an angry mob that just wants to abuse and control her.
I am so glad that her line in the sand is still drawn because as she said, her gym, her decision, it is not about hate. It is about women saying enough to men invading our spaces.
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Now, as most of you know, if you guys have been engaged in this issue for many years at this point, if you've been following along these stories, this is far from the only time that this has happened. Women who create women's only spaces are consistently targeted by trans activists, even when they don't call out trans people specifically.
And that is exactly what happened to Saul Grover in Australia. Now, you guys might have heard her name in conjunction with her app Giggle, but if you do not know her story, back in 2020, Saul Grover created a social networking app for women that was called Giggle.
And she created this after facing years of sexual harassment in Hollywood and sexual abuse, and she wanted to create a space where women could find community and network and have a good support system, because in her words, had she had a better community of women, she feels like she could have avoided many of the situations that she found herself in while working as a screenwriter in Hollywood. And in 2020, after leaving Hollywood and moving back to Australia, she finally created this app.
And while it was still in the beta testing phases on the App Store, trans activists somehow got wind of this women's social networking app. They blasted it all over Reddit and their Discord channels, and they blew up her entire world.
And yesterday she told me her story. I woke up on the 7th of February, 2020, we were in beta testing phases.
So a handful of women around the world knew about it. The app was still full of bugs.
The security wasn't in place yet. Like it wasn't ready to be launched.
It was close, but it wasn't ready. And I woke up to thousands upon thousands of one-star reviews in the app store and Google play saying you're a transfer.
You've known what you did um you're a turf i'd never heard the word turf before i had to google it i just got sort of thrown into this absolutely insane world and i remember saying to my mom so you know we were completely canceled i didn't realize how much but it was it was as bad as it could be really and i but in my optimism at time and thinking, and just going, this is so stupid. I was like, this will blow over in a few months.
And so then after all of that in 2020, 18 months later now, we're in 2022, Saul was literally served a human rights complaint for creating an app that was just for men. An app that she had not even gone out of her way to say, this is only for biological women.
It was literally just because it was a women-only app. It was a single-sex space for women.
She was served a human rights complaint because she was discriminating against trans people. And since 2022, her life has now been consumed by lawfare from one trans activist with a vendetta.
This has completely turned my life upside down. It really actually wasn't until I got the AHRC complaint that I realized that there was nothing, there was no, nothing I could say, no amount of kindness or just trying to find ways with this, this group, this demographic of people that would make them rational.
The premise is so absurd and it is enough to sort of make you, to drive you insane or make you feel insane. So you have to sit there and some days I have to remind myself like I'm 100% right.
Like I know in my bones that I'm right. And another insane thing to note about this story is that in 2023, the Australian Human Rights Commission even intervened in this lawsuit, of course, on the side of the trans activist, and the story blew up even more.
Now, just less than a year ago, in August of 2024, there was finally a resolution and the federal court ruled in favor of the trans activist because, of course, why not? This is our culture. This is our society.
Nothing surprises me anymore. And they said that what she was doing, creating a women's networking app, was indirect discrimination against this trans activist and the trans community.
The decision that we got in Tickle V Giggle was that sex is changeable, which is obviously wrong. Sex is not changeable.
However, and the judge also didn't have to go so broad with that. The question on the table was gender identity discrimination, and somehow he got to sex is changeable from that.
But what he is essentially talking about is this concept of legal sex. We need to get legal sex out of legislation for there to be any sort of sex-based rights for women and for men, because there are sex-based rights that exist for men as well but it's also freedom of speech freedom of belief and freedom of association because the moment that you have anything in legislation that says that you have to accept a man as a woman or a woman as a man or a man or woman as non-binary or cloud gender or any of the other ridiculous nonsense they've come up with your your freedom of speech, belief, and association is being violated.
That is the natural human rights abuse. Again, I just want you guys to listen to this because it's so insane.
By creating a women's social networking app, she was discriminating against men and that actually sex is changeable in the eyes of the Australian government. So now obviously we are in of 2025, and Saul is preparing to appeal this decision with the federal court, but ironically, so is the trans activist.
The trans activist who literally won the lawsuit is appealing because, ugh, indirect discrimination is not enough. They want it to be direct discrimination against themselves, and they want a lot more money from Saul.
He's appealing the decision he won. He wants it upgraded from indirect to direct discrimination and he wants damages increased from 10,000 to at least $30,000 and he wants aggravated damages of at least $10,000.
He also wants me to pay his legal fees, which were always told to the court to be pro bono, but they have now decided are not. I mean, it feels personal at that point.
Like it feels like this is someone who's just trying to financially destroy me because I don't accept that a man can be a woman. But of course it will never be enough.
Well, an indirect discrimination is not enough. $6,000 isn't enough.
They need $500,000. Whatever the number is, it will never be enough and it will never stop until we refuse to apologize and refuse to fold, which unfortunately wasn't the case at a San Francisco spa.
Now, while all of this was happening with Natalie, while Saul was appealing her decision in Australia, a nude Russian day spa in San Francisco was fighting their own battle. Now, earlier this month at the spa, they hosted their cultural and religious women's night for biological men only.
Obviously because it is a nude spa and it is a women's night. Women do not want to see genitals in their nude spa.
Well, trans activists, as they do, they caught wind of this and they crashed the event, literally holding an entire stakeout, a whole protest, because they were not invited into the nude spa on that one evening. Just watch.
It's exclusion. It's discrimination.
It goes against everything that I came here for. I came from Alabama specifically to escape that type of prejudice and hate.
I got here and I found out this city has just as much of it. Oh yeah, it has just as much hate as backwards Alabama because a day spa is not letting you go in the nude in front of a bunch of women.
Yeah, that's just so discriminatory. Just what bigotry, truly.
It's hate and prejudice because women don't want to see you walk around with your penis out, Mr. Ma'am.
It's really that simple. Now, this whole situation got so big and so out of control that the spa finally conceded, which again, you should never do.
You should never concede. You should never apologize.
But they did. And they did say that no, men would not be allowed in the women's night, but that they would create an inclusive night where you could go regardless of your sex, regardless of your gender identity.
You could go and be nude with a bunch of other nude people regardless of what you have going on here and there. But guess what? That still wasn't good enough.
I mean, you can literally predict it at this point because they're demanding that all spaces all the time bow to them. They don't want just one night.
They want all the nights. That response is really discriminatory when you think about it because if you had a, uh, if you had a night where you excluded, say, a certain race, that would not fly.
And we're just saying that it won't fly. It won't fly.
That trans-exclusive nights won't fly. I mean, I don't even think you know what you're saying.
You can barely get through a sentence. You're trying to come up with why it's discriminatory in your brain, because obviously it does not make sense.
We have women's only spaces. We have men's only spaces.
We have had them since the dawn of time. We are now giving you your own space and you are still saying that is not enough.
And if after all of that, you still don't bend the knee, then they start to threaten you. I mean, it really makes me want to include you in my private spaces when you're wishing death upon me.
You know, it really just, it doesn't make sense. Now this all speaks to something that Sal brought up

repeatedly in our interview,

which is the importance of never apologizing,

never bending any, never trying to reason with these people.

Not even doing what Natalie did where she says,

I'm not transphobic, I'm not trying,

don't even do that because it will never work.

Do not apologize for a single thing.

You have literally done nothing wrong.

By acknowledging reality and the truth

and saying that men can't be women,

You are not going to be able to do it. Do not apologize for a single thing.
You have literally done nothing wrong. By acknowledging reality and the truth and saying that men can't be women, there's no crime that you are committing.
Not one thing. They do not care.
It doesn't matter what you say or what you do. Even if you actually were to just give in and say they're right about everything and I'm sorry and men can come in, they still will not forgive you.
And she is absolutely 100% correct. I mean, it's like when you get cancelled, you can't bend the knee, you can't apologize to the left-wing mob, you should not apologize for saying something that you genuinely believe in because that only gives them ammunition.
That's saying, yes, I did do something wrong. And again, I don't know how many times I can say this, it will never be enough.
Now, the last bit of the story that just makes it even more insane that you need to see is that there was one more protester featured in this news video that I did not show you. Just take a watch.
As Latinos, as trans, as queer, as African American, we have, the fear has turned now. If you've weaponized DEI and affirmative action and all these other things that were in benefit of everyone in America, and you've weaponized them against us, now I'm in fear.
Oh yeah, DEI is definitely supporting all Americans. That is the goal of affirmative action, is to help all Americans.
This person, this Dakota Rose Austin, is apparently very in fear, is very scared of what the world in this spa is doing to them. But think about the women who would be in fear if they were forced to be naked in this spa next to a high-risk registered sex offender.
And yes, that is exactly who Dakota Rose Austin is. Here's the article from Redux.
Exclusive trans activist demanding access to female-only nude sauna is high-risk registered sex offender. I mean, like, you genuinely, you genuinely cannot make this stuff up.
It is beyond parody at this point. And again, these are not isolated fights.
Men are barging into women's spaces, whether they be gyms or apps or spas or sauna spaces, literally built for safety and protection, and then they lash out when they're told no. And the thing that I keep thinking of is that all of these stories clearly show us why Title IX was created in the first place.
This is a law based on the principle that we all, regardless of sex, deserve single sex bases, that we all deserve protections on the basis of our biological sex, that both men and women would benefit from these single sex bases and that we need them. And across the country, but really across the globe, this principle that pushed Title IX into existence is being uprooted and destroyed out of fear and emotional manipulation from power hungry activists.
I mean, last year, as we all saw, it even reached Biden, who literally tried to rewrite and undo Title IX on the basis that it was out of date and exclusionary. That is how big this fight really is.
Women having private spaces, that is not a luxury that we are demanding. These are actual shields.
I mean, think about that, a high-risk registered sex offender in San Francisco. Think about Natalie's assault that she faced in a gym, Saul's abuse history, and why she wanted to create her app in the first place.
These are not abstract fears that we are just coming up with out of nowhere to exclude people from being in our spaces. These are real, tangible issues that we are trying to protect ourselves against.
And giving in to these insane emotional demands only means more trauma and less safety for women. And of course, the entire thing is so hypocritical because these trans activists are always screaming and saying that they need protections, they need to be safe, they're dying, the world is killing them, we need to save them all.
But it is always at the expense of others. Their safety always means that we infringe on the right of somebody else and nine times out of ten that falls on women.
It's not a human right if it takes away rights from other people. So that's why women's rights don't actually take away rights from other people.
They add women to it. It's like civil rights didn't take rights away from other people.
The only people who benefit for gender identity in law are men who claim to be women, and they're the ones who take the rights away from other women. So in closing, all of these stories clearly show us that this battle for our privacy, for our safety, is far from over because obviously it is still raging around the world.
But I also do have a lot of hope. I'm inspired by the women who every day stand up and refuse to be bullied into compliance because of things that they genuinely believe, who face relentless attacks, who face death threats on a daily basis because of their desire to protect the women around them.
And I'm even more grateful that these activists and these protesters' motives are being exposed at every turn. That it really isn't about safety for them, it really isn't about inclusion, it's about power, it's about attention, and it's about control more than anything else.
That's it. And in my opinion, once you actually know what is driving someone, it's a lot easier to fight back.
It's a lot easier to not be manipulated and to be able to stand strong in your beliefs. And on top of all of that, I'm so happy that we have a president, again, who recognizes biology, recognizes biological sex, who understands the importance of single sex spaces, is willing to fight for us on every level.
And I hope that at some point in the near future, our country wakes up and puts so much pressure on our Congress that they finally have to make real legislative change. And at some point, these stories have to become loud enough that they just can't ignore us anymore.
And this shouldn't even be a political issue or a left or right issue. This should be a unifying issue.
I mean, think about all those women marching in the street on International Women's Day last week, and they had all of these different causes, they were screaming about different things, and they completely ignored this one issue that impacts all of us. Regardless of our politics, regardless of our values, of our beliefs, this impacts us directly on a daily basis.
So wake up world, if there's one thing you're gonna fight about, it might as well be this.