Gendered spaces are not static places found within a neutral social environment. Because they exist within a patriarchal regime, these spaces have been structured to keep minority genders away from the places where knowledge is constructed and disseminated, and thus power is maintained (Spain 1994) or to prioritize minority genders through the “productive exclusions” of others (Marrone 2010). Because of their consistent use, long-standing histories, and socially approved values, these sites have the symbiotic ability to not only be gendered by their users, but in turn have the potential to create a genre in those who use them. In a society comfortable with a binary construction of sex and gender, it may be considered popular "common sense" that those who access sites aimed at women are women who have had vaginas since birth and that those who enter sites intended for women men are similarly born with penises and therefore designated as male. Because it so visibly disrupts the essentialist sex/gender connection, the transgender experience has called into question the meaning of unfettered access to gendered spaces. This has led to challenges to the entry of such sites as to what constitutes “true” gender identities, who may be allowed to authenticate or invalidate them in the public or quasi-public sphere, and how the substantiation process occurs. As such, entry into gendered places becomes a site of gender verification where entry can infer public endorsement of gender identity. From interviews with women who organize/create and monitor women-only and women-centered spaces, this research found at least two seemingly conflicting gender-based admissions policies employed at the boundaries of gendered spaces. The first – essentials... middle of the paper ...... I have never used a "women only" space (except a bathroom/changing room) because I don't agree with them.” Cisgender men are also allowed entry here, although the space still prioritizes women's gender and the individual's self-identification. Finally, this study suggests that in the period of early gender socialization experienced by organizers and monitors of women-only spaces, the influence of cultural, racial, and class elements may play a vital role. The lack of racial and class diversity in this study suggests that whiteness as a racial and class identifier, and therefore a placeholder of power, occupies positions of power at the threshold of certain gendered spaces. How this might impact the decision to admit some women and exclude others is beyond the scope of this investigation, but is important enough to warrant further examination.