Sarah and Maria explored several areas of the gym and even tried out a few moves on steppers before Jen finally asked the employee to take a closer look at the duo’s outfits. One of the most empowering moments when you’re a strength athlete who feels alienated in your sport is realizing you’re not alone. Athlete Ally educates and advocates for trans and queer inclusion in all types of sports, from LGBTQ+ student-athletes all the way up to the pro sporting leagues. Women’s Strength Coalition

The victims have had to move house following this. There was hostility at the time. It seems the defendant looked through their window and saw them being affectionate to one another."

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She was 13 when she discovered for the first time about the club’s clientele and purpose. “It was Sunday lunchtime and my mother and I were washing up after lunch. She said: ‘I want to talk to you about something because you’re going to hear about this at school. You do know what the club is, don’t you?’ I said: ‘What do you mean?It’s a club,’ and she said: ‘It’s a lesbian club, Gina.’ There’s also a joyous sense of community in hangout scenes at a local lesbian bar or in the women’s housing co-op where Viv lives with a tight posse who have welcomed Jean but perhaps see her as a work in progress, beyond her obvious mutual passion with Viv. At one point, Viv seems to be speaking for the group when she describes Jean as “skittish … like a deer in the headlights.” Two brave girls went to a gym wearing almost nothing but body paint in an attempt to see whether other gym-goers would even notice. Okay, so you’re a queer strength athlete. You know where you can compete if you want to, and you’ve looked into a handful of different organizations that provide education and advocacy around LGBTQ+ issues in sports. Now, you’re ready to start forming your own community and supporting yourself in your athletic journey. These services, groups, and grants can hook you up with everything you need off the platform to support you on the platform. The OUTFoundation

Gina says she feels “immensely proud and impressed by the work and the commitment [behind the documentary] and still astonished by the interest and love that people have for the Gateways and how they remember it. A project of Pull for Pride, Share the Platform is a grant for trans, gender non-conforming, intersex, and nonbinary athletes to participate in the expensive endeavor that is strength athletics. From gym membership and lifting equipment (think lifting belts, shoes, knee sleeves, etc.) to federation membership dues and competition fees, if you’re a trans powerlifter, this grant is definitely something you want to apply for. Fantastic Beasts Atlanta As an LGBTQ+ lifter, you’ll give yourself all the mental health benefits of working out, which includes reduced stress, better sleep, and increased serotonin — not to mention that lift (see what I did there?) in confidence when you pull a heavy deadlift. Increased Body-Mind Connection/Decreased Dysphoria If you’ve ever contemplated becoming a personal trainer or tried to figure out the most effective way to motivate yourself (without beating yourself up), there’s probably an episode of The Queer Gym Podcast for you. Outsports Podcast If you’re looking for one-on-one personal training, there are also plenty of LGBTQ+ fitness coaches to choose from! OUTAthleteI said: ‘What?’ And she said: ‘Lesbians! You know, women with women.’ So I was, like: ‘Really? Really?’” Because we didn’t always have that. There was a time when we were out of favour because we weren’t ‘the right sort of lesbians’.” The club was subjected to demonstrations by the likes of the Gay Liberation Front who disapproved of the secrecy of the club, at a time when women could lose their children for being gay. The indomitable Gina Snr’s response was to call the police on them. If you’re a queer young adult and can’t afford to get involved in strength athletics or pay for your local CrossFit box, The OUT Foundation’s OUTAthlete program provides financial support for LGBTQ+ young adult strength athletes, as well as goal coaching and nutrition counseling. OUTHealth But there are no didactic discussions from Jean’s out-and-proud butch girlfriend Viv (Kerrie Hayes) or her circle of friends, despite their disgust with the Section 28 prospect; nor from Jean’s colleagues — some of whom are in favor — at the high school where she works as a gym teacher. Any mentions of the legislative proposal (which passed that year, remaining in effect in Scotland until 2000 and in England and Wales until 2003) are seamlessly woven into the conversation. Oakley even declines to add the usual postscript text conveying that data.

When I went to other people’s houses I would find them extraordinarily suffocating and conventional. There’d be this ghastly father who was a boring old fart and a mother who was terribly uptight,” she recalls. “I was glad to go home to the laughter and fun. There was a lot more conversation, and I had a lot more access to my parents than my friends did to theirs. I could say what I wanted as well.” Ms Henshall said: "I feel like he was targeting myself and Faye and we just want it to stop. His behaviour was causing a lot of stress to us both and I was constantly worrying about what might happen next. The LGBT SportSafe Inclusion Program is dedicated to educating administrators on the needs of LGBTQ+ student-athletes — yes, including strength athletes. Queer coaches and administrators, too, need support in athletics, and LGBT SportSafe is meant to provide both education and community for all these folks. GLSEN’s Transgender Inclusion in High School Athletics

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The more satisfied you feel with your own body, the less other people’s transphobia will take a toll on your mental health, according to a 2018 study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.( 1) By studying the mental health of over 200 trans women and their experiences of transphobia-based violence, researchers found that making sure trans people have access to body-affirming care (including gender confirmation therapies) helps mitigate some of the mental health effects of structural transphobia. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can confidence your way out of oppression — but it does suggest that developing a better relationship with your body can help improve your mental health as a trans human in a transphobic society. Queer-only fitness classes may offer the similar community-making magic that the bars once did, but they've also been making fitness more accessible to the LGBTQ+ community for the first time. “The reason queer and transgender folks haven’t been participating in the fitness scene is because there have never been opportunities for us," says Dean T., yoga instructor of Naked In Motion’s Women's & Trans class.

One of the victims said to the defendant, 'You have just bumped into my car again,' but he replied, 'Am I bothered?' He then said, 'You are the f**king weirdos you pair of fat c**ts.' Later the exact same set of circumstances happened again with the cars. We all go through phases in life when we are curious about a lot of things—a girl may be curious about the body of another girl, but that doesn’t make her a lesbian, even if they take a bath together. I never wanted to know why she wished to see me naked. We never chose that moment to step into the bathroom of a girl's hostel together. We did it because we were curious. Neatly, it was a story in this newspaper about The Killing of Sister George and the club that persuaded Gina’s mother to explain.

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Yes, we took a shower together. We did not have sex. The thought of touching her never crossed my mind although we stood next to each other for thirty long minutes under a shower. It was only after a few days that we discovered what was going on—we were being called the lesbian couple. Someone in the hostel might have seen us stepping out of the bathroom. Those choices intensify the focus on Jean as a young woman who has embraced her sexuality — she has a heterosexual marriage and divorce behind her, and has come out to her family, at least to her “tolerant” but judgy sister Sasha (Aoife Kennan) — but remains in hiding in her professional life. She won’t allow Viv even to phone her at work, let alone come watch a game with the girls’ netball team that she coaches.