Lesbian Fitness Trainers Cry Foul Over Treatment at Celeb Gym David Barton

 

Two lesbian fitness trainers fired by a swanky gym chain in Manhattan are suing, saying the muscle-head management harassed them about their sexuality.

Deborah Cooke and Christina Rodino charge in a Manhattan federal suit that their beefcake bosses at David Barton Gyms made them the butt of gay jokes and called each of them a "f---ing dyke."

One horndog head trainer hounded them for sex, the suit says. He later asked Cooke - a trainer pulling down $100,000 a year - if she "was going to strap on a penis tonight."

 

Cooke also claims that a general manager saved her contact info in his cell phone under the name "Dyke Cooke" and suggested that she and Rodino, a Pilates coordinator, vacation on Lesbos Island.

The suit says the women were fired Dec. 2 by the high-end health club after complaining about the raunchy locker talk.

The gym said it terminated the women because they were working with outside clients, but Cooke and Rodino argue that straight employees who similarly trained non-members weren't disciplined.

Cooke and Rodino also say they were replaced by straight trainers with less experience.

Celebrity bodybuilder David Barton opened his first gym, in Chelsea, in 1994. The fitness freak, who recently separated from his wife, '80s nightlife promoter Susanne Bartsch, has since expanded to Astor Place, the upper East Side and Miami.

Over the years, his Chelsea location gained a reputation as a gay-friendly gym where after hitting the weights, members hit on each other.

In a 2005 lawsuit, a straight male member sued the gym, claiming gay sex was rampant in the locker room at the W. 23rd St. location - and that other members gawked at him when he undressed.

Barton's lawyer Brian Haskel vowed to fight the suit: "Our client prides itself on its commitment to diversity, freedom of expression and tolerance and it plans to vigourously defend itself against these claims," he said.

Cooke and Rodino's lawyer, Corey Stark, declined to comment.

The women, who live in New Jersey, are suing for an unspecified amount for "lost wages, lost benefits, other economic damages, shame, humiliation, embarrassment and mental distress," the suit says.