A 29-year-old trans-identified male is suing a women-only gym in Erlangen, Germany, after being denied membership. Laura Holstein, formerly known as Nicolas, has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Doris Lange, the owner of Lady’s First Fitness Studio, after repeated rejections of his membership. A court hearing is expected to take place in the near future.
In addition to the fitness studio lawsuit, Holstein is also taking legal action against several German media outlets. With support from the publicly funded nonprofit organization HateAid, he is seeking to prohibit the publication of his former name, any photographs of him, and what he describes as “misgendering” in press coverage.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Holstein made headlines last year as the first trans-identified male athlete to compete in Bavarian women’s football. He was granted approval by the Bavarian Football Association (BFA) to play in the women’s district league for SG Effeltrich/Hetzles. Grit Labahn, head of policy at the BFA, defended the decision, stating that Holstein’s hormone therapy had sufficiently reduced his muscle mass, eliminating any presumed physical advantage.
A balding trans-identified will be allowed to play in a women's football league in Germany, months before he is set to change his legal sex to "female."
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) April 6, 2024
Players have been warned that they may be punished for "transphobic" remarks about Laura Holstein.https://t.co/eReYRlKBJA
Concerns arose among female football players, some of whom were minors, over Holstein’s use of the women’s locker room while playing for SG Effeltrich/Hetzles, according to a report by the Y-Kollektiv podcast. In an effort to defuse tensions, the team implemented a shower schedule for the women’s facilities, giving Holstein special times to use the showers separate from the women and girls. Holstein reportedly failed to adhere to this schedule. Team coach Christian Wagner defended Holstein, warning players that any comments deemed discriminatory toward his “trans identity” could lead to suspension.
In March of 2024, Holstein applied for membership at “Lady’s First,” a women-only fitness studio in Erlangen. To address concerns about his membership, he reportedly offered to wear swim trunks in the communal shower area. However, the proposal drew sharp criticism from some members.
“Imagine the scene,” one client told the news outlet NiUS. “He’s standing there in swim trunks while women come out of the shower naked. How does he think this is going to work? It’s unimaginable to me.”
The studio’s owner, Doris Lange, ultimately rejected Holstein’s membership request, citing the need to protect her clients. She noted that 20 percent of her customers are Muslim women who rely on the space remaining female-only. Holstein responded by posting a negative review online, accusing the gym of disrespecting him. He then contacted the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency.
Following the complaint, Ferda Ataman, Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination, demanded €1,000 in compensation on Holstein’s behalf, arguing the rejection violated the country’s General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).
A women's gym in Bavaria has been ordered to pay a balding trans-identified male €1000 in compensation after refusing to allow him in the showers.
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) May 30, 2024
The Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination ruled that Laura Holstein had suffered "personal injury."https://t.co/2XRmMRGjTC
Supported by her lawyer, Dr. Christoph Franke, Lange refused the payment, asserting that her decision was justified to protect her clients.
But Holstein quickly escalated his complaint. His lawyers, Friederike Boll and Katrin Giere, demanded €2,500 in damages and threatened a €5,000 penalty if Lange continued to deny him access. Lange responded by filing a negative declaratory action to have a court confirm that Holstein had no right to membership. However, this action was overtaken by Holstein’s lawsuit, which is set to be heard at the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court, as reported by the German press agency.
Alongside the lawsuit against the fitness studio owner, Holstein is pursuing legal actions against media outlets that report on his birth name or sex.
The Frankfurt Regional Court, at Holstein’s request, ordered the deletion of an episode of the Hoss & Hopf podcast in which Holstein was referred to as a man and prohibited hosts Kiarash Hossainpour and Philip Hopf from using male pronouns, under threat of fines up to €250,000 or imprisonment.
Against the news portal NiUS, the court issued a preliminary injunction in July 2024, banning the designation of Holstein as a man. However, the injunction was lifted due to a procedural error, as it was not served to NIUS’s legal representative. According to Legal Tribune Online (LTO), the court’s press chamber emphasized at the start of its reasoning about the procedural error, that it upheld its legal assessment.
A further injunction from Holstein ordered NiUS editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt to remove a post on X dated November 15, 2024, in which he announced the lifting of a prior injunction and used an unpixelated photo of Holstein and called him a man.
“We may […] once again and continue to refer to the man who wanted to enter the women’s locker room as what he is: a man! The preliminary injunction has been LIFTED!” The now-deleted post is accessible via archive.
Holstein was represented by HateAid, a Berlin-based nonprofit organization that has supported victims of so-called “online hate speech” since 2018 with process cost financing, despite “hate speech” not being a criminal offense in Germany.
The organization is funded by the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs with more than €1 million annually (approx. $1.09 million USD).
Holstein’s legal team has threatened journalists with cease-and-desist notices for “misgendering” or disclosing his name, asserting that such actions infringe upon his personal rights. The online magazine Tichys Einblick received correspondence from Holstein’s lawyers stating that they are prohibited from publishing even a pixelated photo of him and that: “Misgendering constitutes an inadmissible expression of opinion, as a result of which our client’s personal rights are violated.”
In addition to being represented by the taxpayer-funded organization HateAid, Holstein is raising funds for his legal battles under the pseudonym “Monica Weiß,” a name his lawyers employed in communications with WELT to conceal his identity and cast him in a positive light.
He is seeking financial support to defend himself “against discrimination” and what he describes as “prejudicial reporting” while advocating for his “human rights as a woman” in the face of “transmisogynistic narratives.”
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