What next, after the that bravura display of media marketing muscle that was the gay marriage whoop-tee-doo? There has to be something else to force the rubes to identify themselves by their lack of enthusiasm. But, what ...

Front and center on NYTimes.com this evening:

By GREG BISHOP

Fallon Fox is the first openly transgender athlete in mixed martial arts and the most prominent in a professional sport in decades.

Fallon Fox, born Boyd Burton, found herself in the spotlight after coming out as a transgender fighter in mixed martial arts.

More Photos

Thanks but no thanks on the "More Photos" offer.

I'm struck by the quote "first openly transgender athlete ..." Is the New York Times implying that other women athletes used to be dudes, but we're not supposed to know about it?

By the way, that much publicized 6'8" center on the Baylor women's basketball team who can dunk, is the WNBA's #1 draft choice, and who recently announced was playing for the other (?) team ...

A few skeptics have pointed out that Brittney Griner skipped the Olympics last summer despite being the most dominant player in the world of women's basketball. Some have commended the Baylor brain trust for not exposing Griner to the Olympic spotlight that greeted Caster Semenya, a South African youth who is built like an LSU cornerback, who won the silver medal in the women's 800m at the London Games.



The Olympics introduced sex testing in the 1960s because the Nazis, the Soviets, and the North Koreans kept entering men in women's events, but stopped making it regular after the Cold War. But, the Olympics reserve the right to demand sex testing in egregious cases, like Semenya's.

Lots of real women runners complained about Semenya participating on the women's side of the Olympics, but Semenya's ex-East German coach and other managers artfully played the race card. How dare Europeans question a South African person of color? It's just like apartheid! It's sexism and racism rolled into one: sraxcism!

Granted, you may argue that the number of hermaphrodites and transsexuals are too tiny to matter, and that allowing people who are mostly men to beat women (sometimes literally, as in this MMA case) is not in the interest of women. But that's not the point, the point is that there needs to be a new post-gay marriage cause, and a lot is beginning to be invested in R&D to determine which it will be. This is the second article the NYT has highlighted recently on this esoteric issue, so it definitely has a chance.



A commenter points out that an MMA fighter, retired NFL player Matt Mitrione, has already gotten in career trouble for saying out loud that mutilated ex-men shouldn't beat up women for money. From Wikipedia:

On April 8, 2013 it was announced that Mitrione had his contract suspended by the UFC after making transphobic comments about trangendered fighter Fallon Fox during an interview on The MMA Hour," Mitrione called Fox a "lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak," who he hopes never fights again.[19]

The UFC made a statement on Mitrione's comments that read. "The organization finds Mr. Mitrione’s comments offensive and wholly unacceptable and – as a direct result of this significant breach of the UFC’s code of conduct – Mr. Mitrione's UFC contract has been suspended and the incident is being investigated. The UFC is a friend and ally of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, and expects and requires all 450 of its athletes to treat others with dignity and respect."[20] The suspension was lifted after two weeks when Mitrione's next fight against Brendan Schaub was announced.[18]

Now, you might think of Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, as kind of a money-grubbing vulgarian who is looking to make money off of violent freak shows. But, now we know that, in complete contrast to that horrible mouth-breathing Matt Mitrione, Dana's actually a friend and ally of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in the struggle against transphobic comments.