NATHALIE HUERTA
When someone calls herself “Chief of Making Shit Happen,” you know she means business. Nathalie Huerta, the founder and CEO of The Queer Gym (formerly known as The Perfect Sidekick)—the nation’s first and only LGBTQ gym, located in Oakland, Calif.—has shaped and evolved the facility for the past six years into the incredible success it is today. A certified “ass-kicking” trainer and sports specialist, Huerta earned a degree in sports medicine from the University of San Francisco and an MBA from Mills College. She’s also a former collegiate basketball player. Based on her own experiences as a lesbian who is into fitness (and seeing the problems LGBTQ people can encounter in a gym), she decided to become to change she wanted to see in the world. “I did not feel comfortable at mainstream corporate gyms—constantly harassed by men in the weight room and encountering women who did not welcome me in the locker room, due to my masculine appearance,” she says. “I just wanted a safe space to work out where I would feel both welcomed and celebrated. When that place did not exist, I created it!” –SLO
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