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Photo from Women's MMA World RankingsFallon Fox. If it is the first time that you have heard that name, it probably won't be the last. (Talk about a kick ass name).  I would consider myself a tepid MMA fan and hadn't heard about Fox until I read the GQ article, "Fallon Fox: The Toughest Woman in Sports".  She is the first and only (that we know of) transgender professional MMA fighter.  At 37 years old, Fox is living life #2.

GQ writes:

Born Boyd Burton, he and an elder sister and a younger brother were herded to church four times a week to witness folks rolling on the ground and speaking in tongues.  They were charged with memorizing Scripture and expected to pray aloud to keep the Devil at bay.  Shy and artsy, Boyd had flashes of a female self but poured the confusion into a sketchbook, stealing away to doodle cartoons inspired by Marvel Comics and Japanese anime; his mother tried to think of ways he could draw in the service on the Lord, whatever that meant.

Boyd served four years in the Navy and when he was at home, off the base, he dressed "in a black sundress with red and yellow flowers, playing video games." After leaving the Navy, Boyd studied graphic design, delivered pizzas, and drove a big rig.  Upon informing his parents that he wanted to become a woman, they sent him to a Christian reparative counselling group to 'cure him'.  Needless to say, there was no cure and six years later Fallon emerged on a winter's day.

In 1975, When Richard Raskins transitioned into Renee Richards the tennis world reeled and tried to ban Richards from competing in the 1976 US Open in the women's category (She fought the USTA and she won).  In a sport where cute skirts are the norm, having a trangendered athlete competing with the 'ladies' was, to say the least, problematic.  Fast forward to today.  Fallon Fox isn't just trans person, she is a trans athlete - in a blood sport.  As GQ elaborates:

Arguably there's no safe place in the world for a woman who was born a male, but some places are safer than others….But here is one destination you probably want to avoid: an octagonal metal cage with a sweat-slick canvas and 3,000 testosterone-jacked ticket holders yelling for your blood.  Having spent pretty much your entire adult life longing to embody femininity in its purest form, you might not want to plunge into a world even more macho than football, a seething pit of male energy, all brutal precision, sharp kicks, and elbows to the jaw.  A subculture not exactly known for its progressive gender politics.

But MMA or not, Fox has a message for the world of sports: it's time to catch up. In light of the recent Grantland article (an ESPN website) in which Essay Anne Vanderbilt was outed as trangender and then committed suicide, Fox penned an opinion piece for Time, "The Wrong Way to Write About Trans People".  She admonishes writers and reporters for playing to the lowest common denominators (ratings and money) rather than viewing their subjects as people who deserve respect and discretion.  Fox divulges

Much like my black ancestors who were of mixed race and could pass as white, I hid my trans status (unless confronted on it).  Much like my ancestors I've had to deal with society telling me what restroom I could or could not use or what spaces I could not occupy.  Much like my ancestors I lived in fear for my life or being physically harmed by people who hate on other humans for being slightly different.  History consistently repeats itself because people consistently drop the ball - because of greed.

I would argue that hate and fear of the "Other" also has a lot of do with people "[dropping] the ball".  She calls for sensitivity training so that those in the media can understand the plight of trans people.  While Patrick Burke's You Can Play Project seems to be gaining steam for gay athletes, it simultaneously demonstrates how far behind the world of sports is with regard to issues of gender and sexuality.  It is one of the few arenas in which boys and men are separated from girls and women; they are assumed to be inherently different.  We don't have math class for boys and math class for girls, but we do have boys soccer and girls soccer and rarely do we challenge the division.  Fox's story illuminates the fact that some people are forced to choose a side, as if only two options exist.  I encourage all of those involved in sports coaching, teaching, conditioning etc. to get on the sensitivity training fast because transgender issues aren't something that you will have to deal with in the future, the time is now.  Whether you want to look at it from an equality standpoint or as a risk management strategy, Fox is right, "A small investment [in sensitivity training] would go a long way in ensuring that [your] company isn't looked at negatively.  It is all so avoidable."  'It' meaning the hot water that ESPN finds itself in right now, but more importantly 'it' meaning that approximately 41% of trans people have attempted suicide.  It is avoidable but not without help and acknowledgement from wider society.  Job #1: Do you have unisex bathrooms in your facility? If not, you had better call a meeting, ASAP.

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