I’m not sure what world we’re living in where pro wrestling legend, reality television star and breastauranteur Hulk Hogan comes close to being the voice of reason, but all right.
Because “celebrity news” is a really loosely-defined thing, a reporter stopped Hulk Hogan and wrestling manager Jimmy Hart at LAX and asked them what they thought of Fallon Fox, the trangender MMA fighter who was born a man, became a woman, and is facing a hell of a lot of grief trying to MMA with other women. MMA can be a verb, right? Anyway, the Hulkster is a notoriously dishonest fellow — please consult the story where he killed the 2,000 pound Andre the Giant by body slamming him for more information on that — and he runs a f**king breastaurant, so he’s the very definition of the American Heterosexual Caucasian Male. He’s Guy Fieri with a gym membership.
Fallon Fox is a 2-0 female Featherweight mixed martial artist, her most recent fight ending in just 39 seconds due to knockout. Her next bout is scheduled for April 20th, but her fight license application is currently under review from Florida’s state athletic commission partly stemming from her not being officially licensed in California, as Fallon originally thought. Through all this, it has been revealed that Fallon Fox is transgender (Believed to be the first, male or female, in MMA), having undergone gender reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy in 2006, at age 30.
Because MMA fans are The Worst, there’s a fair amount of hate being directed at Fallon, whether it is from “journalists” saying “All I will say is you may be able to change the cover of the book, but the story inside the book never changes,” or the typical meathead fan talking about dudes with mutilated dicks (That are gay, because of course) beating up women.
Personally, I think if Fallon’s hormones test within the ranges and ratios established for females, there shouldn’t be a problem. Especially since a guy like Vitor Belfort, who tested positive for steroids in 2006, and then got sort of clean, but now has lowered natural testosterone, can get a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy (Though Keith Kizer wants to put the kibosh on that, but that’s a whole other kettle of Megillahs), then a woman who’s been getting female hormones since the same time should be able to fight other ladies. Though I say that with no idea of how science works. Luckily, I don’t have to know about science, because the IOC would allow Fallon to compete as a woman according to their guidelines, and we all know the IOC’s rules are byzantine and insanely strict.
Besides, I’m sure Ediane Gomes would have no problem fighting her, considering she’s crazy enough to fight dudes in Vale Tudo matches and win (Which isn’t to say I think Fallon is a man, I mostly just wanted to point out that Ediane is cool, and I hope she beats Cris Cyborg at Invicta 5).
Actual, intelligent, non-inflammatory information can be found here.
Gabrielle Ludwig is a 6-foot-8 50-year old playing junior college basketball for Mission College in Santa Clara, California. She was born as Robert Ludwig, and now lives her life as a woman. If you have just logged on to the Internet for the first time or have never met a person who is not exactly like you, you may find this shocking. What you may also find shocking is that three guys hosting a local sports talk radio show in Washington, DC, have maintained 1975′s asshole’s opinion of how transgendered people work, and would love to tell you about it.
The men featured in this clip are Steve Czaban, Andy Pollin and Chris Knoche. They do the asinine “he/she” thing for a while and believe “IT” is the politically correct term for a woman who used to be a man. They have a legitimate point about age limits in college sports and bring up the interesting question of how transgendered athletes should fit into sex-specific sports leagues, but it’s hard to pay attention to because they’re more interested in groaning and wanking to each other about how they want the gist of the story, because they aren’t going to read it. They say they believe that Gabrielle should have the same human rights as everyone else, but sports are different. You know why? Because transgendered people only deserve rights if Weenie and The Butt over at ESPN 980 don’t have to know about it.
One thing they suddenly know about: issuing public apologies to keep their jobs. This was ESPN 980′s statement:
We strongly believe two of our employees crossed the line when discussing a tanssexual person on their program last Thursday. Such intolerance and insensitivity will never be tolerated by this company. Due to the nature of their conversation, the pair have been temporarily removed from ESPN980′s Sports Reporter program.
ESPN wasn’t happy either, but they barely know ESPN 980 exists:
“The two are not employees of ESPN and made the comments on an affiliated radio station that controls its own local content. The offensive commentary goes completely against ESPN’s company culture and values. We have expressed our significant dissatisfaction to the station’s management.”
Here’s the simple answer, from the smallest soap box I can find: The correct pronoun to use when referring to Gabrielle Ludwig is “her.” She’s a woman. If you are a DNA scientist and want to expound upon the genetic differences between classically-defined “men” and “women,” fine, let’s do that, but do it in a respectful, intelligent way that shows folks you’re a grown-up in the current century. If you’re educated enough about sports to get a job talking about it on the radio, there’s a good chance you could become equally educated about human sexuality.
Or, you know, you could keep my grandpa’s weird opinions and superiority complexes forever. However you wanna do it.
