WHY YOUR MEMBERSHIP MATTERS.
EVERYBODY Gym continues its commitment to community by offering sponsored memberships to those in need within the LGBTQIA+ community, especially those affected by ongoing anti-Trans legislation. Your membership helps us sustain our Sponsorship Program, which offers both in person and online membership to folks who may not have safe or local access to spaces like ours.
One of the ways we have always departed from mainstream gym culture is by supporting our community members who need it most. We know a lot of folks simply can't afford gym membership who would most benefit from our services, and that's why we have created sponsored memberships and opportunities for those in need.
We continue our commitment to building an inclusive community by offering 10 sponsored (free) local all-inclusive and 10 online (HOMEBODY VOD*) memberships. These memberships are for both locals and folks who reside outside the LA metro area.
If you are in need of our services, including access to a fully equipped gym, classes led by and for our diverse community, and online programming available anywhere in the world, we invite you to fill out our online form by 12/31 to be considered. Recipients will be notified early January.
Transgender, BIPOC, and disabled folks highly encouraged to apply! (Even if you reside out of state!)
We understand that services and healthcare access are particularly at risk for our queer and transgender community members at this moment, and we would love to reach those in regions outside California where safe and guaranteed access to LGBTQIA+ affirming healthcare and services is being restricted and banned by the incoming Administration.
If you know of any LGBTQIA+ orgs in ‘red states,’ or more deeply affected areas, please help us reach out by forwarding this link and invitation to apply for membership.
Thank you for your support and membership, which helps us subsidize and support these sponsorship opportunities. Consider joining or renewing during our membership sale going on now thru 12/31/24!
During this time of year, we also want to make it abundantly clear that your body is the BOSS, and we’re here to listen to what you need to help you connect with your own body, just as you are. Our shared goal is for folks to feel better in their bodies, to love their bodies, and for movement to be a form of pleasure, not punishment. Unlike most gyms, we don’t tell you what you need to do or look like to be “fit” or “healthy.” Our mission is clear and guided by a fundamental goal of making health and wellness accessible, inclusive, and affordable for all people.
*WHAT IS HOMEBODY VOD?
Our online programming has evolved from ZOOM classes created overnight in the wake of the pandemic as a means for our own survival as a small business when our brick and mortar location was forced to close for 6 months in 2020. During this time, we had to go exclusively online, growing our audience overnight to people across the US and the world.
From $5 livestreams on ZOOM to a wide range of home workout videos you can do in your room (or anywhere in the world!), HOMEBODY has now expanded to a growing fitness video library that is accessible to all!
Most importantly, we developed HOMEBODY to show that people who have historically been excluded from fitness spaces and leadership are the most important people to feature at this critical time when representation matters most. We also recognize that there are many people who either require or prefer the ability to work out from home for their own comfort and safety.
Along with our core MOVE/BUILD classes, we deliberately celebrate movement in non-traditional forms that include restorative and non-aerobic modalities. Centering rest and restoration with our RISE/HEAL classes is just as important to health and wellness!
HOMEBODY offers a wide range of movement practices that give you a variety of options for home workout: Yoga, Pilates, Boxing, Barre, Dance, Aerobics, Tai Chi, Meditation, Self-Defense, Weightlifting tips for top surgery, Mobility, Core & more! And it’s all produced in house by local members, staff, and our friends at SLOW BLINK, with a super fun 80’s neon vibe. No more ZOOM logins or rewinding tapes, just watch on your phone, tablet or desktop 24/7!
VOD is also included in your membership or available as a separate subscription for non-local folks. (Or anyone who requires/ prefers an online only workout option.)
Check out a few HOMEBODY classes on our YouTube channel!
Sale Pricing available thru 12/31/24:
$33/ mo. Basic Gym + Amenities + VOD
$66/ mo. Gym + Classes + VOD. Includes all of our classes, amenities, and off-site swim/ beach events.
$20/ mo. VOD only.
Trans Lives Matter. Your Membership Matters.
Thank you for helping us support our Sponsored Members!
TRANS AWARENESS MONTH
Today is Trans Day of Remembrance. On these days where we remember and honor those who have come before us, we pause to acknowledge how far their lives have taken ours, especially at a time when their very existence was discouraged and denied. We honor their legacy by recognizing all the services and access and language and visibility that we enjoy today as beautiful gifts they have given us.
November is Trans Awareness Month and Nov. 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance.
On these days where we remember and honor those who have come before us, we pause to acknowledge how far their lives have taken ours. Especially at a time when their very existence was discouraged and denied. We honor their legacy by recognizing all the services and access and language and visibility that we enjoy today as beautiful gifts they have given us. May we honor the privileges we enjoy of being and becoming who we are even as we face forces that continue in vain to try and dim and extinguish our beautiful and eternal light.
brief HISTORY
Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1999 by a small group, including Gwendolyn Ann Smith, Nancy Nangeroni, and Jahaira DeAlto, to memorialize the murders of Black transgender women Rita Hester in Allston, Massachusetts, and Chanelle Pickett in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Remembering Rita Hester and Chanelle Pickett
VIA Transremembrance.org: What began a quarter century ago continues today. Activists and organizations around the world work collectively and independently to honor and remember our dead. We share names and stories, talk to loved ones, scour news and police reports, and build networks in our communities. Still, the work is never done, and the list is never complete.
Black trans women are more than the victims of anti-trans violence; they have always been at the forefront of the movement – building community, advocating for policy change, and organizing to protect our rights. Read more here.
90’ TRANSITIONING TBT
A note from Sam, EVERYBODY Co-Founder: In 1998 I remember standing in a line and then sitting in a row of chairs for up to five hours or more to be seen in a clinic on “Transgender Tuesdays” at the Tom Waddell Clinic in San Francisco. This room was a sanctuary for people like me seeking care that was not yet available anywhere else.
Tom Waddell Health Clinic in San Francisco
I remember how it felt like such a gift that the only cost was the endless wait. This was only made bearable by the gorgeous array of people in the room. Everyone shared their beauty tips and pointers for how to pass, where to get surgery and who to avoid. The jokes were nonstop, the comments searing and riotous. The stories were heartbreaking and hilarious in equal turn. The range of lived experiences in the room was vast and there were huge chasms of privilege between so many of us and yet there we were together, all in desperate need of the same free services the City of San Francisco was openly providing us. What a time to live through. I’m so grateful for this experience.
‘Transgender Tuesdays’ highlights the personal stories from and services provided to the Trans Community during the 1990’s at the Tom Waddell Clinic in San Francisco.
Today I want to honor those people who shared that room with me, 25 years ago as I know so many of them are no longer with us. We have lost too many of our elders far before we should have. Too many have been victims of mental illness and forces of violence beyond their control. And some of us live on, still fighting, still pushing forward and insisting on a more inclusive world. Sabel Simone Loreca (pictured below) was there with me in that room then, and I’m so grateful to still share space with my beautiful sister today.
Trans Community Advocate and Personal Trainer Sabel Samone Loreca
Thank you to Trans Advocate, Activist, and EVERYBODY Personal Trainer Sabel Samone Loreca for continuing to build and fight for safer communities, access to gender affirming health care, and resources for our Transgender community since the ‘The Bad Old Days’ of the early 90’s . Please follow Minority Aids Project and G.L.A.M.O.R. MAP for more.
TRANS AWARENESS MONTH & BEYOND
We are Trans and Woman owned and actively hire within the wide spectrum of our Queer and Trans communities. We are currently connecting with local orgs in ‘Red States’ to offer free online programming to Trans youth in need while locally continuing our sponsorship program for Trans folks at the Gym. We will also continue to support LGBTQ founded and focused orgs including Pink Haven Coalition: community defense, mutual-aid, and alternative systems of care for gender diverse people, Border Butterflies Project: an arm of the Trans Law Center assisting LGBTQ+ asylum seekers at the U.S. Border, and Miry’s List: assisting new arrival refugee families.
Border Butterflies Project
When we first opened our doors in 2017, we faced similar circumstances to the ones we find ourselves in today- a government taking power that openly opposes and blocks access to care for so many in our marginalized communities that are in struggle and need: the trans community, the immigrant community, BIPOC folks, disabled folks, survivors of sexual abuse, the elderly, the list goes on...
We will continue to show up for all our communities in need, to provide safe harbor and access to resources for hope, strength and resilience. We will continue to offer opportunities for our community to explore and expand relationships with our own bodies as sacred, inspired, whole, and a source of connection to all beings everywhere. May our movement practices deepen our compassion for ourselves, for each other, and provide a gateway to our own refuge and recovery.
May we continue to shine for our ancestors, transcestors and for each other, always.🏳️⚧️
MONSTER BASH wRESTLING RECAP!
Thank you for making MONSTER BASH a SMASH!! Happy Halloween🎃and thank you to everyone who came out to our first ever LIVE Wrestling Match featuring EVERYBODY Instructors Candy Pain, American Oni and students from our Wrestling 101 class. Did you miss it?😱 Don’t worry, here’s a little spooky szn recap!
The Reviews are IN! And so is Queer Wrestling! Thank you for making MONSTER BASH a SMASH!!
SHE-E-O goes for a flying clothesline against the Riot Ghoul’s! 📷 Anna Gustafson
Happy Halloween🎃and thank you to everyone who came out to MONSTER BASH queer wrestling match last week! It was our first ever LIVE Wrestling Match featuring EVERYBODY Instructors Candy Pain, American Oni and featured students from our highly popular Wrestling 101 classes at the gym. Plus a few other folks from the community, some of whom also wrestled at Trans Dudes of LA T-Boy Wrestling earlier in September!
ICYMI: Here is a BRILLIANT write up on that historic night in the LA Times by Jireh Deng!
🔗www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2024-10-11/t-boy-wrestling-trans-dudes-la
L.A. Times T-Boy Wrestling feat. EVERYBODY Personal Trainer Paulo Diaz. 📷 Carlin Stiehl
Planting the seeds at Wrestling 101.
We went full nelson for this one and rented a full size 18x18 professional wrestling ring, which was constructed on site at our sister space: SIBLING Studio with the help of our wrestlers and local community volunteers. Kids, adults and even a few doggos got in the spirit by dressing up, holding signs, and cheering on their favorite wrestler. We fueled up on empanadas, hot chocolate, ice cold Modelos, had our cards read by Jessica Jensen, faces painted by Paint On Your Face , and played cornhole provided by local queer league Fun Bags LA. It was giving all ages FALL FAIR FUN!
📷 All photos by Jocelyn Perich and Anna Gustafson
Best of all, we were able to donate $500 to the Border Butterflies Project after expenses! The Border Butterflies Project is an arm of the Transgender Law Center providing resources to LGBTQIA+ Asylum seekers at the U.S. Southern Border. Please follow, share and support if you are able!
MONSTER BASH featured 6 rounds of queer and campy WWE-inspired wrestling featuring Riot Ghoul’s vs. SHE-E-O, Toxic Femme vs. Feminist Killjoy, Gender Cop vs. Gender Goblin, Malady Practice vs. Creature, Leather Daddy, Macho Mummy, and more! There was even an on-site Medic from the Professional Wrestling circuit. (You know, JIC!) Thank goodness he didn’t have to move a muscle.
But you know who did? Our brilliant Halftime Show cast & crew! Thank you to our PUMP THE JAM instructor MK Lordz for a soul stirring singalong to Yeah Yeah Yeahs Heads Will Roll and Halloween by Aqua featuring haute moves from some of our members. Even our REF, Oldie Hawn jumped in! PS, You can join MK’s Pump the Jam every Tuesday & Thursday at 8p @ EVERYBODY!
AMANDITA gave us G.L.O.W. wreslting match vibes with the tunes, while our HOMEBODY VOD producer ANNA handled the 80’s inspired tones. Shout out to our Ring Daddy Abby, Yay/ Boo Applause crew LGBTQ Studies professor Julian Sanchez and local poetry night producer Karla Lamb! Thank you again to all of our volunteers, wrestlers, and wranglers!
Will we rumble for a good cause again? YESSSS!! Stay tuned on @everybodylosangeles social for our upcoming weekend Wrestling 101 classes if you’d like to get more involved.
Riot Ghouls vs SHE-E-O 📷 by Jocelyn Perich
A note from our Sam:
Thank you to our entire crew for all your hard work and dedication-- I know there were a lot of hours put in to make this happen. I appreciate everyone's commitment to this, and I personally think this does more than just generate income for the benefit-- it builds our community, it allows time for folks to meet and socialize, and it serves an even greater purpose beyond that.
I spoke to a lot of people after the show who had such a great time and who also couldn't even put into words why they had so much fun. I think the scripted characters everyone put together achieved exactly the tone and message that I had hoped for in our initial meeting.
📷 by Jocelyn Perich
What I think this kind of spectacle of "sport" creates is really an opportunity that we rarely get to have in our community or world. It allows us to channel some of our more animal instincts and abandon the rules a bit... of course that requires a lot of careful planning and intonation which I felt was done exceptionally well.
Watching performative wrestling like this is kind of akin to what comedy clubs can do when people are given permission to laugh at things that are forbidden, unspoken or taboo in our culture-- except the bodies do the talking with big, exaggerated movements instead of words, and they are not simply laughing but also booing, cheering and loudly reacting to what is happening in the ring (almost as another character of the show). The showdown between “Toxic Femme” and “Feminist Killjoy” really nailed (ha) some of the more subtle tensions in our communities with true comic genius!
📷 by Jocelyn Perich
I love how the "match" gives us permission to root for the one we want to win (the pairings were sublime), and I noticed an interesting tension between some of the characters where people were not sure whether to boo or cheer... That has so much potential to mine and explore!
Macho Mummy vs. Leather Daddy 📷 by Jocelyn Perich
I thought everyone did such a great job of both playing their characters and either slightly or overtly subverting them- turning them into complications for us to reflect on even at some of their most memorably campy moments. It was working on so many levels, really. really was blown away with what folks brought to the stage, as well as behind the scenes!
Thank you all for showing up the way you did. It means so much to me and to our incredible, diverse, weird & wonderful community.
-SAM / Co-Owner EVERYBODY
📷 by Jocelyn Perich