Cyd Zeigler, co-founder and blogger at Outsports, an LGBT-focused site that is part of left-wing digital media company Vox’s SB Nation network, praised MMA transgender fighter Fallon Fox.
Fox was born a biological male, but travelled to Bangkok in 2006 to get surgeries to become a trans woman at the age of 30.
Fox was permitted to fight in the women’s division in MMA despite some opposition.
In 2014, Fox fought female opponent Taika Brents. Within the first two and a half minutes of the first round, Brents suffered a concussion and her orbital bone in the skull was fractured by Fox.
Despite Brents’ blood spilling all over the mat, Fox didn’t stop hitting her until a referee stepped in to end it. After the gruesome fight, Brents received several staples in her head.
During an interview, Brents reflected on her fight with Fox:
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“I have struggled with many women and I have never felt the strength I felt in a fight like that night.
“I can’t answer whether it’s because she was born a man or not because I’m not a doctor.
“I can only say that I have never felt so dominated in my life and that I am an abnormally strong woman in my own right?
“I still disagree with Fox’s struggle. Any other job or career that I say I try, but when it comes to a combat sport I don’t think it’s fair.”
Zeigler claimed Fox valiantly overcame unfair criticism over the fight with Brents and other wins against female opponents. He called Fox “a true profile in courage” and a trans athlete who “is the bravest athlete in history” and suggested critics are transphobic.
Zeigler interviewed Fox regarding the fallout with the fight against Brents and her injuries. Fox shrugged it off, saying:
“This happens all the time. I’m not the first female MMA fighter who’s broken another fighter’s bones or caused a large amount of stitches or a concussion or any combination of those.
“And people will of course, because I’m trans, hold it up as this devastating thing that couldn’t possibly happen if I weren’t trans.
“But there are many different examples of similar things happening.”
Yet, many are speaking up about the physical dangers to females.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is a physician, has said allowing males to compete in female sports is misogynistic and anti-science:
“Some boy who’s 6-foot-2 competing against my 5-foot-4 niece doesn’t sound very fair. I wonder where feminists are on this?”
UFC fighter Paul Costa blasted Fox and the promoters who booked the infamous fight with Brents:
“He was born a man, and he is a man, even though he calls himself a transsexual. It’s absurd cowardice, not only by him but also by the promoters of any event that has accepted this kind of absurdity.
“He has simply annihilated the girls who have fought against him. They were slaughtered, they put their lives at risk, they put their physical integrity at risk.
“I don’t want to get into [the personal aspect] of his choice, to be transsexual or not, homosexual or not. What happens here is that a man is fighting against girls, against women, as if he were one.
“This is absurd, and it can’t be accepted.”
There are growing concerns in terms of physical safety and equity in allowing males who identify as female to compete against biological females. Biological men have a distinct advantage because they are naturally stronger, faster and bigger than females.
Retired British Olympic swimming champ Sharron Davies said trans athletes have a biological advantage because men have more muscle, bigger lung capacity and better endurance. She told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2019:
“If you are born male … you are going to have a bigger lung capacity. You are going to be taller. You are going to have bigger feet, bigger hands, a better red blood cell count, better hand-eye coordination.”
Davies also noted that the male advantages don’t go away simply because a transgender athlete takes testosterone-suppressing hormones during transition:
“The majority of men transition after puberty, so they have all the extra strength that comes with testosterone that’s very much pumped through the body when you go through puberty.
“Even if you suppress for one year, it will make very little difference to your actual performance. And women just cannot … beat them.”
The physical advantage that males have enables them to easily take championships, titles and scholarships away from female athletes.
On Jan. 20, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on gender identity that mandates any school, which receives federal funding, must allow males who identify as female to play on girls’ sports teams.
Schools that acknowledge biological distinctions between males and females could face repercussions from the Department of Education through the loss of federal funding.
Biden’s order also forces girls to share bathrooms and locker rooms with transgender individuals:
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
However, several states are pushing back against Biden’s push for men in women’s sports.
Last week, the Mississippi Senate on Thursday voted in support of female athletes by ruling that regardless of what gender they wish they were, men cannot compete in women’s sports.
The 34-9 vote sends the bill to the state House of Representatives, according to CNN.
Senate Bill 2536, designated the Mississippi Fairness Act, covers not only high schools, but colleges that are either publicly controlled or members of the NCAA and other national college organizations.
The bill states:
“Athletic teams or sports designated for ‘females,’ ‘women’ or ‘girls’ shall not be open to students of the male sex.”
In addition, the bill also says that a student may establish his or her sex by presenting a signed physician’s statement that confirms the student’s sex based solely upon three factors: the student’s internal and external reproductive anatomy; normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone; and an analysis of the student’s genetic makeup.
Republican
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee recently said that transgender girls should be banned from playing on middle and high school sports teams or they will “destroy women’s sports.” He further explained:
“It will ruin the opportunity for girls to earn scholarships. It will put a glass ceiling back over women that hasn’t been there in some time. I think it’s bad for women and for women’s sports.”
The Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative nonprofit, tweeted on Jan. 21 that allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports places women at a disadvantage:
“Every time a transgender woman secures a spot on an elite women’s team or wins a scholarship reserved for female athletes, a biological female loses an opportunity. #SaveWomensSports #IWregs #BidenErasedWomen.”
Tennessee is one of a dozen states with lawmakers backing restrictions on athletics or gender-confirming health care for trans minors this year, according to NBC.
The proposals come as a growing number of state high school athletic associations in the U.S. have enabled transgender athletes to play on teams based on their gender identity, and the NCAA has trans-inclusive guidelines for all its member schools, according to NBC News.
There is growing interest in having transgender athletes compete against each other since they would share the same chromosomes and gender identity, which would make sports more equitable, especially for biological females.
It would also stop accusations that some athletes have deliberately switched their gender in order to participate in women’s sports, which is considered easier than the male versions, and go on to break records and win awards.
Retired NFL defensive end Marcellus Wiley responded to Biden’s executive order by calling for a separate competition category for transgender people. In a Jan. 29 tweet, Wiley posted:
“As a father of 3 daughters & the husband to a former collegiate athlete, this hits home in a special way. It’s time to create a separate transgender category in competition!
“Also think it’s time for me to start a podcast bcuz some things need to be discussed in detail! #respect.”
Transgender fighter who broke female's skull 'bravest athlete in history' (lawenforcementtoday.com)
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