Courage

You know who the bravest athlete in history is? I bet you don’t. Here, have a headline:

Fallon Fox is still the bravest athlete in history

Why? Because of the hatred.

In 2013, when Fallon Fox came out publicly as trans in professional mixed martial arts, she was the target of a torrent of hatred I have literally never seen targeting an LGBTQ athlete. While certainly some writers took thoughtful approaches to understanding this emerging dynamic of trans athletes in women’s sports, still many more, like Joe Rogan, were vicious for the sake of being vicious.

Wait a second though. Isn’t Fallon Fox a man? Doesn’t “Fallon Fox came out as trans” mean that Fallon Fox is a man who decided to “identify as” a woman so that he could compete against women instead of men? Does that really make him brave? Let alone the bravest ever?

Cyd Zeigler thinks so, or pretends to think so in this article:

Yet Fox stood strong and continued to push for, and earn, her right to compete. Except for one fateful match, she also won every time she stepped into the professional ring.

Well no shit, he’s a man, who stepped into the professional ring to beat up women. When he stepped into the professional ring to beat up Tamikka Brents, he broke her orbital bone and gave her a concussion. I’m not seeing the bravery.

When I wrote my book, Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes Are Claiming Their Rightful Place In Sports, the final chapter was titled, “Fallon Fox Is The Bravest Athlete In History.”

That remains true for me now, four years later.

Nothing for the bravery of Tamikka Brents?

Don’t be silly, there’s no such thing as bravery in women.

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