A New Jersey spa must allow male customers who identify as the opposite sex to access female-only areas where women are required to be nude, regardless of whether they’ve undergone a sex-change surgery, a judge has ruled.
In a consent order signed by Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Sarlo, the King Spa in Bergen County agreed to implement policies based on “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”
“It is unlawful and violates company policy to discriminate in any way against a client because of the client’s actual or perceived gender identity,” the consent order states, according to NJ Advance Media. “[E]ach person has a gender identity, which may or may not correspond to the sex that person was assigned at birth.”
According to the order, which was signed in August but has only recently garnered media attention, the company policy’s definition of gender identity refers to “a person’s internal sense of being male, female or any other gender, regardless of physical characteristics or appearance.”
The order comes after Alexandra “Allie” Goebert, a 35-year-old male who identifies as female, filed a discrimination lawsuit after visiting the King Spa in 2022, according to Reduxx. When Goebert visited the spa’s Palisades Park location with a female companion, he received a wristband that granted him access to the men’s locker room.
After Goebert complained to the staff that he identified as female and the state of New Jersey recognized him as a woman, a staff member granted him access to the women’s area.
According to the King Spa’s website, customers must be nude to use the baths, noting that the facility offers “distinct women and men sections.” The spa offers customers the opportunity to experience “Korean sauna culture,” which requires nudity in certain areas.
Upon entering the women’s locker room, a locker room attendant noticed Goebert and called the manager, who asked the trans-identifying male if he had undergone a sex-change surgery.
The manager, Youn Park, asked Goebert if he still had “boy parts,” according to Reduxx, and he replied by claiming he was a woman and that having male genitalia didn’t necessarily mean he was a man. When the manager continued to press Goebert, however, the man admitted that he had not undergone any surgical interventions to remove his male body parts.
Park told him to use the men’s spa, and when Goebert claimed that would make him uncomfortable, the manager agreed to let him use the women’s spa if he wore a bathing suit. Goebert refused to wear a bathing suit, and the spa refunded his admission fee and asked him to leave.
The trans-identifying male later filed a lawsuit against the spa, alleging that the facility had discriminated against him.
Attorneys for the spa argued in court filings that the spa’s staff recognized Goebert as a recurring male customer who had previously used the men’s side of the spa, NJ Advance Media reported.
“They indicated that the individual could certainly use the facilities, but not in the female nude area,” Paul Faugno, the spa’s attorney, wrote in a position statement.
“This individual was not denied access to the use of the facility,” the attorney argued. “He was only denied access to go into the nude female area when this individual by admission had male genitalia.”
In a Friday statement to NJ Advance Media, Goebert said that he was not seeking “personal enrichment” by filing the lawsuit.
“I was seeking policy changes. That’s all I wanted,” Goebert said.
At the time of reporting, the spa’s website stated: “You may use the locker room that matches the gender identity on your government- or state-issued photo ID.”
The New Jersey-based spa is not the only facility to face a lawsuit over its sex-segregated spaces.
In February 2020, trans activist Haven Wilvich filed a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission after the Olympus Spa in Seattle denied his membership application. The spa denied Wilvich’s application on the basis that he had not undergone any surgical interventions to remove his male genitalia, which was still intact.
The family-owned spa, modeled after sex-segregated bathhouses in Korea, accepted male trans-identifying patrons who had undergone a sex-change operation; however, the WSHRC argued that this type of policy is discriminatory. The WSHRC claimed that the policy “focuses on the genitals of patrons” rather than “gender identity.”
While the spa attempted to sue the WSHRC, in 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein upheld the commission’s order for the Olympus Spa to admit men who identify as women, even if they still have male body parts.
Last month, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that USA Powerlifting violated state discrimination law by not letting a male trans-identified athlete compete in its women’s division. The majority opinion was authored by Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, who was appointed by former Democratic vice presidential hopeful Gov. Tim Walz.
“Although USA Powerlifting lacked a formal, written transgender participation policy at the time of its initial communication with Cooper, the record establishes — and the parties do not dispute — that USA Powerlifting’s policy at the time of the decision was to categorically exclude transgender women from competing in the women’s division,” the decision states.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
