*Trigger warning, this article details an account of egregious transphobia & misogyny*
Fallon Fox, the 37-year-old Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter whose license is under dispute as the result of her trans status, is speaking out about the rights to privacy of transgender sports professionals.
“I don’t believe a transgender fighter should have to disclose her personal medical history to other female fighters before they fight,” she said in an interview with AXS TV (posted below). “It’s simply for the reason the medical community and the scientific community have come to the consensus that post-operative transsexual fighters who have been on hormone-replacement therapy and testosterone suppression, when they’re going from male to female, haven’t been found to have any physiological advantages over other women.So why should we have to disclose our personal medical history?”
Still, some fighters have publicly stated they’d be hesitant to fight Fox because of her trans identity. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White has said it’s a decision the athletic commissions will need to make.
“Some fighters have already said they would not want to fight me,” Fox said. “I think that’s because they’re scared, number one, because I’m pretty good. Or they might just have a bias or they might just be a hate-filled person who doesn’t want to touch me or whatever. But I don’t want to fight those people anyway because they’re scared, so what kind of fight would that be?”
If passive-aggressive transphobia from within the female-identified fighting community is not enough, Ms. Fox is having to defend herself against prominent ultimate fighting misogynists. Yesterday, Joe Rogan, commentator for the UFC, indulged in an extremely egregious, hate-filled rant during his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” according to TMZ. Interested individuals can watch the full video at the TMZ site. We chose not to post it based on our policy not to glorify hate speech.
“She calls herself a woman but … I tend to disagree,” Rogan says on air, after his costar refers to Ms. Fox using a transphopic slurr. ”She used to be a man … but now she has had, she’s a transgender which is (the) official term that means you’ve gone through it, right? And she wants to be able to fight women in MMA. I say no f**king way. I say if you had a d*ck at one point in time, you also have all the bone structure that comes with having a d*ck. You have bigger hands, you have bigger shoulder joints. You’re a f**king man. That’s a man, OK?”
“I don’t care if you don’t have a d*ck any more,” Rogan continues “You’re a man without a d*ck.”
*Wild Gender typically does not provide a voice for blatant transphobia, but Joe Rogan and hate speech like this needs to be accounted for. Please hold Joe Rogan accountable for his hate. Please report this incident to GLAAD and or TIMA here.*