Miesha Tate, on the left, will not fight a trans athlete, while Liz Carmouche says she will.
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — Wary of a supposed “lack of research” on trans female athletes, at least one fighter would not enter a bout with trans woman Fallon Fox over a concern of getting hurt by her.
UFC fighter Miesha Tate: “I understand she wants to be viewed as a female. I get it. That’s fine, but it’s not fine if you may have a physical advantage and may be able to really hurt someone. It has to be disclosed. It should be an opponent’s choice whether they want to fight her or not.”
Fox is saying science shows that trans women on hormones do not have an advantage over cis women. She also reportedly said fighters that don’t want to fight her may be scared or have an issue with LGBT people — “hate filled” is the term Fox used during an interview on ASX-TV.
On the other hand, other fighters are willing to take on Fox. High ranking UFC fighter Liz Carmouche: “. . . if she makes it to the UFC, and fights in the 135lbs female bantamweight division, I’d be happy to fight her. . .”
Officials from the UFC are evading questions with vague and indirect answers.
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We’ve a ways to go before all this get settled. Stay tuned.
My earlier articles on Fallon Fox:
http://lexiecannes.wordpress.com/?s=fallon+fox
More from ESPN: UFC bantamweight Miesha Tate says she wouldn’t fight transgender athlete – ESPN.
Miesha Tate, on the left, will not fight a trans athlete, while Liz Carmouche says she will.
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Filed under: Transgender, Transsexual, Trans, athlete, Fallon Fox, fighter, Liz Carmouche, Miesha Tate, ufc
[Tip of the hat to Kara Tucker]
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1566939-note-to-dana-white-transgender-fighter-fallon-fox-is-a-woman
Fallon Fox Is a Woman
By
Matt Juul
Regardless of where you stand on the issue, whether you think that she should be able to compete against female fighters or not, there is one fact that you can’t deny about transgender mixed martial artist Fallon Fox: mentally, physically, and legally she is considered a woman.
By the International Olympic Committee’s and the NCAA’s standards, Fox meets all the medical requirements necessary to compete as a female, and even her Illinois state issued driver’s license lists her as a woman.
So when UFC president Dana White referred to Fox as a man in a recent interview with MMAJunkie.com, I couldn’t help but shake my head. Here’s what the big boss had to say:
So before you even think about fighting in the UFC or whatever – he was a man and now he’s a woman – he’s fighting girls who have losing records. Before you get too crazy about him being in the UFC, he’s so freaking far from being in the UFC that it’s not even funny.
Now, I have no problem with the actual points White made. Sporting just a 2-0 record with wins against fighters with a combined 0-5 record, Fox has a lot to prove before she can ever consider stepping foot inside the Octagon. And at 37 years of age, who knows how much MMA is even left in her gas tank.
I don’t even take issue with people debating whether Fox has a physical advantage over female fighters or not. No, my problem with this issue is the way the MMA community and society at large talks about the topic of transgenderism.
We all know that White isn’t the most politically correct person in the world, so I doubt there was any malicious intent behind his statement, but when an issue as divisive as this comes up, we must be mindful of our words. Not for political correctness’ sake, but purely out of respect for the parties involved.
Most of us will never know the hardship and struggle Fox and other transgender individuals have to endure while dealing with this topic throughout their lives. While it’s fair to debate the possible advantages of Fox’s physical attributes (although there’s increasing scientific evidence that she has zero advantages), referring to her as a man is disrespectful and is not even close to being factually accurate.
The problem when it comes to the terminology used to describe a transgender person is knowing the difference between sex and gender. And as much as close-minded critics hate to admit it, these distinctions are important and not even close to being black and white.
The World Health Organization refers to sex as, “the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women,” as in the actual physical traits a person is born with. The organization describes gender as being “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women,” or basically the mental associations one has with being either masculine or feminine.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation makes even clearer distinctions when it comes to gender, breaking it into two parts: gender identity, or one’s internal sense of being a man or a woman, and gender expression, or one’s external manifestation of one’s gender identity.
These are important to note in Fox’s case because, while her sex prior to her hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery was male, both her gender identity and gender expression indicated that she’s a woman. Now that she’s had her surgery and been on hormone therapy for years, biologically and mentally Fox is a full-fledged woman.
Now critics can argue all day long on whether this should be the case or not, but if the law and major athletic committees say she’s a woman, then who are we to disagree?
FUCK THESE STUPID CATEGORIES!!!
THERE´S NO TRANS OR CIS!
THERE ARE ONLY WOMEN.
ALL THAT SHIT IS ONLY POSSIBLE CUZ PPL ACCEPT BEING REJECTED BY THESE DESTRUCTIVE & REPRESSIVE CATEGORIES. FIGHT EM!!
BE PROUD, BE FEMALE – NOT “TRANS-FEMALE”