A Bergen County nude spa must provide training on gender identity and gender expression to current and new employees, as part of a settlement agreement reached between the spa and a transgender woman who said in a lawsuit that the spa violated New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD).
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Sarlo has signed a consent order, making the agreement between Super King Sauna NJ LLC, which does business as King Spa and Sauna, in Palisades Park and Alexandra Goebert of Watertown, New York, legally binding.
Goebert, who had not undergone gender-affirming surgery at the time of her visit, alleged in her complaint that the business would not let her access the female side of the spa unless she covered up. She said an employee handed her a wristband designated for male clients after she provided her driver’s license saying she is female and that the manager asked if she had “changed your front,” then clarifying the question by asking if Goebert “had boy parts.”
“Plaintiff replied that she did not have any ‘boy parts’ because she is a woman,” said the complaint, which was filed with the court May 17, 2023.
Goebert inferred that the manager was asking whether she had undergone gender-affirming surgery, also known as “bottom surgery,” and she responded that she had not, according to the complaint.
The manager then told Goebert she would not be allowed on the female side of the spa, and Goebert responded she would not feel comfortable on the male side, the complaint said.
King Spa and Sauna is a Korean spa that requires full nudity in certain areas.
After Goebert said she would not feel comfortable on the male side, the manager left to get the general manager to speak with her, according to the complaint.
The general manager told Goebert she would be allowed in areas such as the sauna and hot tubs only if she wore a bathing suit, but Goebert replied that she didn’t have one, since the spa mandated nudity in these areas, the complaint said.
After Goebert said she didn’t have a bathing suit, the general manager left to speak with the spa’s “legal counsel and/or Vice President” about the situation and upon returning, told Goebert the spa would provide uniform shorts for her to wear in the nude areas, the complaint said.
Goebert responded by saying she would not wear the uniform shorts in those areas unless the spa was requiring every woman to do so, explaining the spa was discriminating against her because of her gender identity, according to the complaint.
Further, Goebert said in the complaint that she informed the general manager of New Jersey law, specifically the LAD, calling up the statute on her phone and reading it aloud.
Still, the general manager would not allow Goebert to use the female-designated spa services and facilities, telling her she needed to “think about the other guests” and how they would feel if she were allowed to do so, the complaint said.
“Plaintiff went back and forth with Defendants’ staff and management for approximately two hours, in view and hearing of other female customers who were permitted to use all of the facilities that they had paid for, unlike Plaintiff,” Goebert’s complaint said.
In addition to the required training, the judge agreed in the consent order that the spa needs to implement a policy prohibiting discrimination based on “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression” and distribute it to employees. The spa also needs to post the policy at the front desk, at the entrance to each sex-segregated area of the spa and on its website, the order said.
Goebert’s attorney, Miriam S. Edelstein of Costello & Silverman LLC in Mt. Laurel, did not respond to a message requesting comment nor did the spa’s attorneys, Paul Faugno and Missy Duarte of Faugno Weis Duarte Law Group LLC in Hackensack.
