I don’t believe I told anybody what was going on with me
-“She calls herself a woman, but I tend to disagree”
[Announcer] “Winner by knockout, Fallon ‘Queen of Swords’ Fox”
- “Joe, what do you think about that tranny that’s trying to fight in MMA?”
[Announcer] “Usually strength is something Fallon has over her opponent”
“She wants to be able to fight woman in MMA. I say no f*cking way”
“ It’s a thin line when you want to play contact sports with the opposite sex”
- “You have bigger hands, bigger shoulder joints. You’re a f*cking man.”
[Music]
I was scared, I was very frightened.
I thought about committing suicide often. It was a very very painful experience being stuck in the wrong body.
I don’t want any tips, no. Just a manicure.
When I was younger, I struggled with my gender identity.
Early 2000’s, I got out of the military and did a lot of research just to find out what exactly what was going on with me.
And I found the term “gender dysphoria”.
Gender dysphoria: it’s where your brain sex doesn’t match your physical sex.
I first started feeling gender dysphoria around 5 or 6 years old.
I was doing a lot of cross dressing. Dressing up in my sisters clothes when she wasn’t looking. And I liked it a lot.
When I was younger, I used to think that ever male bodied person was like me, feeling these feelings.
I joined the Navy in 1996. I primarily joined the Navy to take care of my family and to serve my country.
I didn’t have a hard time blending in at all. But, it didn’t feel like me. It didn’t feel like who I was.
I got out of the Navy in 2000. That was the time I told my dad what I was going to do.
That’s when he took me to the gay reversion therapist.
And it was very Evangelical Christian-based. He would tell me that I am gay and I would tell them I’m not.
I have an interest in woman, but that’s not my thing. My thing is that I feel like a woman, I feel like I should be a woman.
I drove truck for years to save up money for transition.
I decided to get the surgery in Thailand because Thailand because it’s the mecha of transgender surgery.
If you’re going to get it done at a cheap cost.
And I was finally able to do it in 2006.
I came out to my boss, on the job. It was like a week later. I came in dressed as a female and living in a female role.
And driving a truck while doing it.
I first got interested in mixed martial arts from watching all the woman fighters and I was thinking these are amazing fighters.
They have talent, and they are woman.
I never got to see that until I saw MMA.
You see things on movies and stuff like that where a strong female characters actually fights.
But, you never get to see it in real life. And that just sucked me right in and I wanted to be one of them.
I love fighting because it is empowering. It makes me feel good, it makes me look good.
During that time, I was just another fighter, I was just like everyone else.
[Announcer] Fallon Fox in position. Just under a minute remaining in the opening round.”
“What a beautiful new, what a beautiful tie clinch right to the chin.”
“Unbelievable, game over. Fallon ‘The Queen of Swords’ Fox.”
I felt completely together. Didn’t have to deal with any of these transgender issues.
At the same time, I was scared that I could be outed.
In the end, that’s what happened.
A reporter came after me and asked me some questions about my past and I felt like it was coming.
So I decided to come out ahead of it and I came out to Sports Illustrated.
-“ You know, it’s insulting that she didn’t let us know initially. And I have already explained and expressed my feelings about that.”
- “I say it’s f*cked up. You can’t fight woman.”
- “ She’s not just huge. She’s got a f*cking mans face”.
It’s hard to not look at a computer screen and see all of these things.
That people should know better. People like Joe Rogan have said about me.
I’ve been through a lot of things to change myself from male to female.
Gender reassignment surgery. Hormone replacement surgery.
Those things by themselves decrease my testosterone to a level where I am lower than any other female in the planet who is not transgender.
-Fallon certainly had faced a lot more and continues to face a lot more discrimination.
- I don’t face the push back that Fallon faced when she came out.
- The idea was that transitioning from female to male, I would never been competitive.
No one ever thought I would able to succeed in a sport competing against men.
- So basically transgender men are pushed to the side.
I started becoming suicidal again.
I could have gone my whole MMA career if anyone wouldn't had asked questions perhaps I could have just been myself.
And continued fighting without having to go through all of this drama and stuff.
There is a major need for education on transgender issues.
I think society needs to learn about transgender issues to be able to  treat transgender people a lot better.
We need to not be treated, ya know, like we are oddballs.
After I came out, I got hit by media. Some of it negative some of it positive. And I found myself being an activist as well as a fighter.
-“ I think the solution is education on the subject.”
I’m doing a lot of speaking engagements and air time. People are hearing about transgender people and it is very positive.
-“ Nothing has come easy for Fallon in this industry, what with political rule supreme, narrow mindedness.”
“ But Fallon has seen her way through, with grace and confidence with her head held high.”
“ Here she is, Fallon Fox. Please welcome her.”
All of us, especially our LGBT youth, who are struggling to find there way in the world,
that often excludes them deserve the respect of inclusion.
On every level.
I just want to give back. the transgender community is so far behind but we are catching up.
I get a lot of kids messaging me on social media and sending me emails telling me that
they’re transgender or LGBT and they say that they look up to me.
They’re watching my fights and I give them hope. If that’s happening then that’s a very positive thing.
- I think having those very visable transgender athletes out there is opening up a whole new world to young people.
- And for people who are considering transition or are gender non-conforming.
- To show other people it is possible, you can continue to play, you can continue to be your authentic self. And be successful in your sport.
I am a woman 100%.
Being a woman is a feeling, it’s an emotion, it’s something you just are.
And that’s the basis of it. And it’s hard to explain.
I mean gender is in your brain. To me, just being woman is just being me.
And you just know, you just know.
And that is the best way to describe it.
- So what do I do at work? I am having sex with hot girls.
- From the get go, I’m like “ I can see myself with this girl”.
- Now I get to have sex with her.
