MMA Fighter Unwillingly Comes Out as Transgender

Earlier, we told you about Montreal Canadiens hockey star Josh Gorges’s reported plans to come out of the closet, which would be a huge step in the right direction for pro sports. Another story that’s making the rounds today, however, proves that not all coming-out experiences are created equal. This week, MMA fighter Fallon Fox revealed she’s transgender, but in an interview on Outsports, she says it wasn’t a revelation she necessarily wanted to make:

For years I’ve known at some point it’s very likely the shoe would drop. Maybe someone would guess that I’m trans. Maybe they would know me from my life before I transitioned. I’ve been waiting for that phone call to happen. And Saturday night, it happened.

Fox was at dinner with friends when a reporter called asking questions that led her to believe he knew about her “secret past.” After opening up, she got a call soon after from a trainer who had been interviewed by the same writer.

These past six years, people have seen me as a woman, not a transsexual. People in the gym, people I train with, it’s been great, it’s been awesome. I’m just a woman to them. I don’t want that to go away. It’s unfortunate that it has to.

In the rest of the Outsports interview, she goes on to talk about everything from her father putting her in gay-conversion therapy when she told him she may be trans to  how her revelation that she was born in a man’s body has raised licensing-issue questions from MMA officials. It’s a great read. Check out the rest of the story here.

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