Help Us Defend Women’s-Only Spaces

For the past nine years, Queens has been a place where women come to feel safe, supported and empowered.

We have welcomed thousands of women through our doors - women from all walks of life, including trauma survivors. Many have chosen the Queens studio because they wanted to learn and exercise in an environment created exclusively for women.

That has always been our promise.

But earlier this year, that promise was challenged.

After refusing a membership application in order to maintain the female-only nature of our business model, a discrimination complaint was made against us. We participated in conciliation through the Queensland Human Rights Commission in good faith, but unfortunately, no agreement was able to be reached.

The matter has now been referred to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

This case is about much more than one small business.

It asks whether women can continue to have spaces created specifically for women, and whether small businesses can uphold the purpose on which they were founded when competing legal rights come into conflict (and, in turn the same for men's only spaces).

This is not a campaign against anyone.

Every person deserves dignity and respect.

But we also believe women deserve the choice of female-only spaces, particularly where privacy, vulnerability and recovery are central to the service being provided.

As a small family business, we simply do not have the financial resources to fund a lengthy legal battle on our own.

Legal advice, representation and tribunal proceedings are expensive, and the costs continue to grow.

We’re asking for your help.

Every dollar raised will go towards keeping our business operational while defending this case and ensuring we have the opportunity to properly present our position before the Tribunal and keeping our women’s only spaces alive.

Whether you support us because you believe in women’s-only spaces, because you believe small businesses deserve access to justice, or because you believe these important legal questions should be properly tested, your support means everything to us.

If you’re unable to donate, simply sharing this campaign will help us reach others who care about the future of women’s-only spaces in Australia.

Thank you for standing with us, our members and the women who have trusted Queens to provide the environment we have proudly offered for the past nine years.