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- [Narrator #1] Racial inequality, defund the police,

and now LGBT rights,

Portland has become a hot bed of protest.

- [Narrator #2] Police declared a riot in downtown.

- [Narrator #3] There are all these attacks

against trans rights and trans humanity

that is really easy to gloss over.

- [Narrator #4] Soon as Trump was elected,

we saw a significant increase in white supremacist activity

and misogynist activity.

A lot of trans and queer people were being assaulted.

- [Narrator #5] Officers say he attacked Jenny

with a metal pole.

- [Narrator #6] I don't wanna end up to dead one day.

- [Danica] We had heard about her, that she was trans,

that she was special forces,

and that she had a very specific skillset.

- [Narrator #7] So we're now seeing this widespread movement

to ban women and girls who are trans from women's sports.

- You didn't transition

to win more medals? - No.

- [Narrator #5] Alana McLaughlin,

the second trans athlete to compete in MMA.

- [Narrator #8] The South Carolina native

says she has spent her whole life

physically resisting violence, so mixed martial arts.

- [Narrator #5] The human rights campaign says

a record 34 states introduced anti-trans gender bills

last year.

- [Alana] The only way that trans people

are gonna have more freedom and more inclusion

is if we step up and make that space,

clear it out for ourselves,

because it's definitely not gonna be given to us.

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- [Campbell] I know it sounds like outta left field,

I'm thinking about bringing Fallon Fox back.

- [Mike] Well, if I put my purist hat on,

yeah, I don't think it's great.

How old is she?

She's like over 40 or 40 years old right now, I think.

- [Tony] I'm on the same page with you, Mike,

I'm worried about the optics.

I do know of Fallon Fox, I don't know her personally,

but I know there was a lot of bad press on that,

so I'm not sure how this would pan out.

- [Mike] It's definitely gonna create

an explosive situation, so I'm uncomfortable with it.

- [Campbell] You know, it's funny,

I know how respectful you guys are.

So when you tell me politely you don't like it,

you're probably thinking, this is the dumbest fucking idea

we have heard on one of these calls.

I didn't think Fallon Fox was over 40.

Let's find out if she's still active as a fighter,

and let's table it.

I mean, if she's not fighting and whatever,

alright? - Okay, do some homework.

(Alana slurping)

- I did not create the Wikipedia page

and I'm not quite sure who did.

I remember I said something on Twitter about like, you know,

I'm surprised I don't have one.

And then it was a couple days later, one popped up.

But if you look at the editing history on that page,

most of the edits are someone from an anonymous IP pops on

and changes all the gender pronouns

to he and him just to be shitty,

and then someone changes it back.

- My name is Anne Lieberman, I use they/them pronouns,

and I'm the Director of Policy and Programs

for Athlete Ally, a nonprofit organization

that works to dismantle the structures of oppression

that isolate, exclude,

and endanger LGBTQI+ people in sports.

Every trans person is different, we are not a monolith,

so that's also just important to say.

But gender dysphoria is when someone's deeply held belief

of their gender does not match

what is happening on the outside.

- No, it was like five or six,

and I saw there was some kind of TV show,

like some expose on Christine Jorgensen,

who was she was a trans woman

back in like the '40s and '50s.

- Have you finally achieved full acceptance?

- Oh, I don't know whether things would be full acceptance.

With the intelligence, of course,

on the educational level of colleges and so forth, yes.

In John Q Public, I'm not so sure sometimes.

People are still believing

that little boys should have blue booties

and little girls should have pink booties.

- Seeing that and feeling something click, you know?

And even then, I didn't really have the words for it,

I didn't have the vocabulary to describe it.

You know, you know who you are and nobody else does.

You know, it's maddening,

it'll drive you crazy.

I knew I was a girl, even if nobody else did.

You know, keep in mind,

I grew up in the '80s and '90s.

I knew it was dangerous to discuss,

because we went to church five times a week,

and you know, it was a church where they firmly believed

that everyone in the world is going to hell except them.

My paternal grandfather was gay

and he died in the AIDS crisis during the '90s.

- The threat of aids, just the very threat of it,

has changed the lives of millions of people.

And you heard from the talk about prevention,

about which I wanna say more in a moment.

It needs to change the lives of millions

of more Americans. - Probably like between

the age of like 5 and 10, sometime around then,

grandpa started coming around again,

and I guess dad and grandpa

sort of repaired their relationship.

And then grandpa got sick,

and then dad took care of him while he went terminal.

But even in spite of that, you know,

grandpa made it clear that he had no regrets,

you know, he was happy to be who he was.

But when he passed my parents,

I don't know if this was to comfort themselves,

they were just certain that he repented before the end.

You know, and that mindset,

well, it never sat well with me,

I wasn't able to be open about it.

I don't know if my parents ever spoke with him about it,

but I mean, I didn't intentionally come out to them.

Like they used to dig through my belongings,

they'd read my diary, you know,

find girl clothes in my dresser in the back of my closet.

And because of that, they took away my bedroom door,

they took away my bedroom curtains,

so you know, every morning I'd see hundreds of cars

going by on the main highway there

on the way to school

while I was standing there in my underwear,

you know, because they wanted to make sure

I wasn't cross-dressing, right?

They did all these things

to sort of try to make me conform to masculinity.

That kind the focus of their lives really

was the church for most of my life.

- We know that trans kids experience

higher rates of suicidality and mental health issues,

especially when they're not in a welcoming

and inclusive environment.

If there is at least one supportive adult

in a trans kid's life, that that increases their ability

to survive and connect to their communities exponentially.

in a- Around the time Ithat that was five years old,lity

my parents started to take me to a nearby chicken farm

owned by some members of their church.

This was an effort to get me to man up

by spending time with their adult sons.

Instead, one of them raped me

and continued to do so for years.

The only reason they believed me

is because they went to my abuser's parents and said,

"You know, well,

y'all have raised five or six boys.

You know, why is our child telling these lies?"

And then they're like,

"Oh, well,

this isn't the first time this has happened,

so maybe it's not a lie."

And I know that when I was being abused,

I know of at least three other kids

that were actively being abused at the same time,

and I was the only one to come forward.

I was the youngest, I was the smallest,

and I was the only one to come forward.

I mean, it should come as no surprise

that as a kid growing up in the south,

a skinny little queer kid who was kind of femme,

you know, I got bullied a lot.

So I would hide out in the blackberry thicket

where nobody could come in after me.

I was small enough to get in there

and that was my safe place, surrounded by thorns,

eating berries.

(gentle instrumental music)

Yeah, I went down and took those cognitive tests at the VA,

and they said I was still in the top 2%.

- [Fritz] That's amazing after all the concussions

you've had. - Yeah, well,

that's the thing,

I've never been diagnosed with a concussion,

I've never had a concussion, getting hit in the head,

or blown up, or otherwise, so.

- [Fritz] Well, lucky you,

you can see all these - But still.

- beautiful flowers. - Yeah, all the shit

I got up to when I was younger and in the army,

I don't know.

- Yeah, we're close confidants,

and Alana's an open book.

I mean, you ask her,

she'll tell you,

we've seen each other through some hard spots.

She's been there for me and I've been there for her.

I know about her family of origin,

I've heard about her hard years growing up,

I know about the abuse she suffered

as a trans person in the public eye.

I like to hold those stories for her and she holds mine.

- I was so deep in my own head

and my own bullshit, just trying to muddle through things.

I was extremely depressed, I was suicidal,

you know, all I could think about was my gender,

who I was gonna be, the abuse that I'd suffered.

People knew I was smart, but they knew something was wrong,

but nobody ever did anything about it.

Athletics kind of saved me.

Basically, one of the girls on my track

and cross country team, she got scholarships

to Newberry College in South Carolina,

and they were actively recruiting other runners,

and she gave them my name and then they recruited me.

And I ran two seasons at Newberry College

before people were homophobic and transphobic towards me.

And I was talking to my mom, this was what it was about.

I was like, these feelings have not gone away.

You know, I told my parents

that the whole conversion therapy again

and cutting me off from any support

wasn't gonna work for me,

so maybe I should join the army instead, and you know,

get myself killed at war.

And then my mom said, "Maybe the army's not a bad idea."

- An army of one. - Yeah, you know,

I was without direction.

All I gave a shit about was that I was sad, and angry,

and nobody cared about me.

So when I decided to join the army,

it absolutely was not out of any patriotic duty.

I don't know what it is that drives me

to do these things, but it's,

you know, if I was gonna be a soldier,

I was gonna be one of the best soldiers.

I wasn't gonna settle for being a cook or a mechanic.

And if I was gonna go to combat,

I was gonna be one of the best at it.

(gunshots banging)

Anybody volunteering for special forces, to an extent,

they are a different breed.

They're there for some reason or another,

they're driven by something,

and I think some of them it's trauma,

some of it it's just toxic masculinity,

like, this is how you be a man,

for whatever reason, I mean,

that's kind of why I was there.

I was at a tipping point and I knew I was gonna die

one way or another if I didn't transition.

You know, we were on exfil from Afghanistan,

we were flying in a Black Hawk from our FOB

that we'd been at into Qalat,

what they call map of the earth,

so we were flying low down in a valley in the helicopter.

And, you know,

I'd gone through this whole deployment,

been shot at and blown up,

and I was still here, you know,

worst I'd had was just a couple scratches,

you know, piece of shrapnel in my hip,

like, you know,

being the medic on the team,

I didn't even report that,

I didn't get my purple heart

because I didn't want that enemy marksmanship badge.

But we were flying in that helicopter,

and I thought about jumping.

And I don't know, I can't remember

if it was my team sergeant or my captain,

and I don't know if they just had a gut feeling

or if I actually like moved towards the open door.

I don't remember what the fuck happened,

but I know that somebody like grabbed me and pulled me

and held me up against the wall of the aircraft

until I made eye contact.

And that was.

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I was so hopeless, you know?

And I've had people tell me,

"Oh, you're so brave for doing this."

And it wasn't bravery, it was desperation.

It was, I'm gonna die if I don't do this,

either by my own hand or by someone else's.

And I tried six years in the military, I did special forces,

I saw combat and was better at killing than I was at dying.

So yeah, I went up to Asheville,

North Carolina, and I spent close to a year

in a little cabin outside of Weaverville by myself.

I had been trying to ease into it.

And then my birthday in 2012, I was like,

"Fuck it, I have to do this."

And easing in isn't working, didn't work.

So I jumped in feet first.

Hormone therapy and social transition.

So, you know,

I stopped wearing men's clothing.

But no, I graduated,

got my art degree,

and I went to work for a blacksmith shop

back in Asheville or outside of Asheville.

(suspenseful music) (hammer banging)

Then my friend Sophia talked me

into moving out here to Portland.

You know, I'd never been here before,

sight unseen.

Frankly, I honestly believe that if I had not been trans,

I'd have been in the UFC by 2011 or 2012

after I got outta the Army.

But that didn't seem like that was ever gonna be possible

if I couldn't have surgery,

and I didn't think I was ever gonna have surgery.

It wasn't until 2016, within a couple months of being here,

someone that I knew from a forum,

an old trans message board on the internet,

she got ahold of me and she was like,

"Hey, you know,

I know this doctor,

this guy out in Thailand who used to run

a gender transition clinic."

So the deal was they give me all the surgeries, you know,

bottom surgery, top surgery, facial surgery.

And then in return,

they get to use my photos for advertisement.

I jumped at the chance, you know?

And she's like, "Hey, you know,

don't feel like you have to take this,

because it's gonna be scary and it's gonna be lonely,

and it is dangerous."

Because I got top surgery, bottom surgery,

and facial surgery within a week of each other.

I ended up losing a lot of blood

and had to have a transfusion,

I'm guessing I had a bleeder somewhere.

After I got surgery, the clinic ended up going under.

The guy that put it all together, I was told,

'Oh, he's wanted by Interpol now."

After surgery, I was an emotional rollercoaster.

I apologized to all of my friends

that were with me at that time

who saw the nightmare person I was

for a good six months after that.

I was hard to deal with.

I took some of these important moments

in my life and put them online.

My social media presence kicked off

back in the heyday of Tumblr, a blogging website

where I chronicled my transition

and made some of my first serious forays

into engaging with the trans community.

(video beeping)

(suspenseful music)

This is where I dipped my toe

in learning how to be a baby activist

with local orgs like the UNCA Feminist Collective.

(suspenseful music)

With the election of Donald Trump, I saw a real threat,

not only to the LGBTQ community, but minorities everywhere.

Eventually Tumblr gave way to Instagram and Twitter.

- We had heard about her, like there was this

like trantifa super soldier who came to Portland.

And so we reached out to her,

'cause we do a community defense project.

- So the past three to five years

have been the most violent

and scary in the history of the US for LGBTQI+ people.

Hundreds and hundreds of pieces of legislation

directly targeting LGBTQI+ communities

at the state level, at the federal level.

And the majority of that legislation

has been targeting transgender people.

- I got very politically active.

And then, you know,

anybody that's watched the news reports about Portland

for the past six years, that's Portland.

(suspenseful music) (people yelling)

(gentle instrumental music) (air whooshing)

Everyone's favorite, the magic fairy wand over here.

When I made it and displayed it,

I had it wrapped with pink ribbons and it was really pretty.

But in recent years it's been used for stress relief.

And usually around this time of year

we go and smash up pumpkins.

I used to call myself an artist,

I would like to call myself an artist,

but I can't afford space in Portland to do that.

So it's mostly complete,

but I want to build a really big,

ridiculous ostentatious frame around it.

Back in the '30s, Mussolini's fascist party headquarters,

this was the front of the building,

si being the Italian word for yes,

and it's just Mussolini's face.

I changed si to just dollar signs and exclamation points,

because Donald Trump is a silver spoon con man.

I make no secret of the fact that people

that openly say they hate people like me

and want me dead, I hate them right back.

- Alana does have a tough exterior.

She's seen all sorts of action from Afghanistan

to even here on the streets of Portland.

But you know, underneath it,

she's a squishmallow, she is a little kitten

who wants to curl up by your side,

get head scratches, and eat snacks with you.

- [Alana] Okay, the fountain is seriously looking

very inviting right now. - Yeah, it's beautiful.

- My therapist wrote in support of me

when I was filing my claim from the VA,

that I have one of the worst cases of PTSD she's ever seen.

And for me it's, it's not just PTSD,

it's complex PTSD, because it started when I was very young.

You know, and it's the kind of thing that happens to people

who are put in traumatic situations

that are long-term and inescapable.

- Even with her complex trauma, with her combat background.

(sirens wailing)

(gunshots banging)

- [Alana] This is real fucking good for my PTSD.

- Being trans and living in this society,

she is actively working on her own mental health.

- She's a person who came from a world of violence.

And for her to have that, the thing that honed her,

and turned it into something that's challenging

and positive for her, I think is amazing.

- You know, by the time I was 10,

you know, I'd spent half of my life

being someone's personal sex toy.

I'm surprised I'm in any way a functional human being.

'Cause most of the time people don't come back from that.

(suspenseful music)

I haven't spoken to my family in years.

Their false hope of conversion is long gone.

Sometimes I wonder if they check in

on my social feeds to see what I'm up to.

But I have to remind myself

of the reality of this situation.

Yeah, I know my story makes me sound

like an anime character brought to life, but what can I say?

It's my story and I'm the one that lived it.

I'm a tough as nails, candy coated,

hard femme, trantifa super soldier.

(suspenseful music)

I'm Lady Feral.

(suspenseful music)

- [Campbell] This is a pretty good way

to jumpstart a lot of interest.

I mean, it's if they don't care about us,

that I think is the problem.

- [Tony] I mean, I understand that,

Campbell, I'm just worried about legitimacy.

You know, we're an up and coming organization,

I think we're headed for a train wreck.

- I don't. - Can I speak?

- [Campbell] Yeah, go ahead, Mike.

- [Mike] Alright, so here's the deal.

You know, I got the low down on Fallon,

and she's outta action, she's not in shape,

and she's kind of aged out of the sport.

But she did turn me on to another transgender fighter

who has a really crazy story, actually.

You know, before she made the transition,

she was in the special forces.

And now she makes swords.

- She makes swords? - That's right,

she makes swords, actual swords.

If we're going down this path,

I think she's a much better fit,

you know, regardless of Fallon's circumstances.

- [Campbell] I just want to be clear

on what the TV gods

are offering us. - Yep.

- [Campbell] This is a fucking no brainer.

Alright. - We are an MMA organization,

not the United Nations, just remember that.

(Campbell laughing)

- I forgot. - I don't even know

what that means, but it's funny.

Look, Tony, I hear you.

Let's find out some more.

What is this woman's name?

- [Tony] Her name is Alana McLaughlin.

(fighters grunting)

- So that's what you call karate, hey?

- In the '80s and '90s, I really got into Bruce Lee.

Kind of a crush, to be honest,

because nobody else looked like that

and nobody else moved like that.

You know, you go back and watch

any of the contemporary movies from that era,

Bruce was the only one

that had that kind of onscreen charisma.

It was the closest I was ever allowed to dancing.

You know, it was an expression of the human body

that I was at least tangentially allowed to access.

You know, my sister's danced ballet,

and I wasn't allowed.

You know, running was my first love

when it came to athletics.

But mixed martial arts, just martial arts in general,

it's a way to sort of re-inhabit and reclaim my body.

You know, it lets me feel like I have

some measure of control

that I might not otherwise feel that I have.

♪ Nobody

♪ No, no, no

♪ Nobody, nobody does it like me ♪

♪ Nobody

♪ No, no, no

♪ Nobody

(upbeat music) (singers vocalizing)

- [Interviewer #1] Hey, Fallon Fox, MMA fighter,

the transgender one.

- Yeah. - Is trying to fight

in the UFC.

We're not sure if they wanna welcome her into the UFC.

Would you welcome her into the wrestling?

- I'll whip her,

I mean, I'll whip him.

I mean. - You'll whip him,

you'll whip her or him? - I'll whip her.

I'm confused.

- Well, regardless of. - Have dinner, submission.

- [Interviewer #2] You think you can knock out Fallon Fox?

- I can knock out on anyone in the world.

(upbeat music)

- Is having a long over due conversation

around transgender issues,

recently inspired by the likes of Caitlyn Jenner

and Laverne Cox in "Orange is the New Black".

Among the ranks of transgender pioneers is Fallon Fox,

the first openly transgender athlete in the history of MMA.

And she joins us this morning.

Good morning, Fallon.

So good to See you.

(upbeat music)

- The first round. - Yeah.

Allanna challenges and Fallon gets her down,

the earliest we've seen so far in the fight.

- Yeah, got her throat. - Oh, and Allanna Jones

taps out.

A knee across the throat from Fallon Fox,

Allanna Jones taps out in the third and final round.

Fallon Fox comes out on top.

(crowds cheering) (upbeat music)

- Fallon transcends the sport she was in.

She transcends MMA.

You cannot do this story and not talk about her.

In many ways, Fallon is,

if you built a Mount Rushmore of trans people,

you have to make a strong case for her being on it

because of what she did, and how she did it,

and the hits that she took to do it.

- More than anything,

you admired her for putting herself in this position.

Somebody's gotta be first,

we've seen it in every walk of life.

It's always gonna be difficult, it certainly was for her.

- It's not her undefeated record that has everyone talking.

The headline is the fact that Fallon was born a man.

Fallon kept her history private until breaking the story

to "Sports Illustrated's" Loretta Hunt this week.

- So the first time around,

no one knew that she was transgender.

It wasn't until the second time that we found out,

or she came out and said publicly,

that she was a transgender fighter.

- My very first fight was back in '99.

So it's like, that's early,

early days of the sport.

Accomplished quite a lot, you know,

I had an amazing career, won five world titles.

I'm strongly against trans competing in MMA.

- [Alana] Okay, we need to pause here,

so I can tell you exactly who Jake Shields is.

He's a misogynist, racist, anti-queer,

anti-vax conspiracy theorist.

He thinks climate change is fake,

that queer people are destroying civilization,

and that women are sex objects and baby factories.

This is the man that suggested Greta Thunberg

just needed a proper smashing from Andrew Tate

to knock it off with her crazy feminist climate activism.

He's going to shriek that trans athletes

are dominating women's sports,

which he acknowledges he doesn't care about, by the way.

How can we believe he wants to protect women

and daughters when he thinks feminists

just need a good fucking.

- Unless they're going against other trans.

Fallon Fox wasn't a good fighter, but she was just bigger,

she, he, whatever it was,

bigger and stronger than the girls she was fighting.

She hid the fact that she was a man.

I think at that time period,

people weren't following trans athletes,

it was kind of a new thing.

Now it's everywhere, it's being pushed in every sport.

I think the vast majority of people don't agree with it,

but they're scared to speak out.

- I think it has gotten more intense

and I think it's due to the politics.

I think it's because of the political division

that the country is facing,

we didn't have that 10 years ago.

It was more of if or why she should fight.

But now they're bringing in more of the politics into it.

- I think over the last 10 years in social media

has certainly heightened all issues.

So why would this one not be included?

However, it also heightens the amount of notoriety,

acceptability too.

You know, there's a yin and yang,

with social media, you know,

you get a lot of people know about something real quick.

And look, I mean,

we weren't even talking about athletes that were gay

up until four or five years ago.

- In some ways it's gotten better

in that more and more people are out,

more and more people feel safe to come out and move forward.

We are building the society I would've liked to have had

when I was 15, 16 years old.

- The younger generation

is just far more open and inclusive.

What we're seeing in terms of the pushback

is so rarely with young people, it's mostly with adults.

- Every single girl in fighting

I've talked to is strongly against trans and trans MMA.

I think girls don't like getting involved with politics,

rightfully so, it's kind of a man's job,

so they really don't like speaking up on it.

But it's unfortunately in this situation,

I think they're kind of cornered

where they're gonna have to start speaking out.

- I think it comes from naivety.

I think a lot of men have not really watched

a lot of women athlete events.

There's always positives and there's always negatives.

And the tradition is to focus on the negatives.

- The problem is though, when you make progress like that,

there's always going to be backlash.

And oftentimes, history has shown us,

that that backlash can be very violent, can be very sudden,

and can be very panicked.

Take it as a sign of hope,

because that's a symbol

that they're losing and they know it,

and they need one last shot at the buzzer.

- [Announcer #1] Fallon "Queen of Swords" Fox.

- Fallon Fox and I had connected on social media

like back in like 2014, 2013,

something like that.

And it was mostly because, you know,

there for a while if you were trans on the internet,

it was a pretty small community.

And then someone who was, you know,

I wasn't as prominent as Fallon was,

but there's not

a lot of former special forces trans women either.

So I had gotten a little bit of attention,

like recognition for that.

So Fallon and I knew of each other.

And I think I had actually told Fallon

I wanted to make her a sword,

'cause you know, her name for fighting,

you know, was the Queen of Swords.

- She appreciated my fighting

and we became Facebook friends, and you know,

we've been chatting ever since.

- And she's like, "You know,

you could do this?"

It was 2020, I think,

it was like right before the pandemic hit,

right before COVID 19.

I'd flown out to Chicago

and I trained with her a little bit,

and I think she was feeling me out to see

what kind of potential I had.

- The more minorities that you have competing in a sport,

such as this situation

where people like are hating against the minority group,

it's better to have more minority groups

out there competing.

And that way people can see, you know,

that they're just like everybody else

and that they belong in this sport.

- [Narrator #9] The 17-year-old Dallas area

high school student won the title of champion

in the girls state wrestling competition Saturday.

A mix of cheers and boos

directed at the wrestler as he fell to his knees.

(suspenseful music)

- I want trans girls that are in like school now,

I want everyone that comes after me

to not have to deal with the same fucking bullshit

I've had to deal with.

Like, I want a better world

for the people that come after me.

And apparently that's a weird thing to want these days.

You know, in American culture

we've got this idea of pulling up

the fucking ladder behind us.

You know, you look at,

you know, I don't want to be like,

oh, you know,

the baby boomers ruined everything.

But I mean, who can afford a house now?

You know, nobody.

You know, the climate's collapsing,

the world's on fire and flooding,

and we're just supposed to be okay

with this and keep going to work.

You know, like, this is the kind of shit that pisses me off.

I wanna see a better world when I'm gone.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(upbeat music) (crowds yelling)

- [Narrator #10] Two great fighters right here.

Two guys putting it all out there.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(crowds yelling)

- Holy cow. - Cunningham's come alive,

like Peter Frampton.

(upbeat music) (crowds yelling)

- I really created this company

to give people an opportunity.

And there were a number of athletes, a number of countries,

a number of groups of people

that were being overlooked, for whatever reasons.

And Combate was formed to give those athletes

and those audiences a chance

to have their own version of MMA.

- [Alana] Let me introduce you to Campbell McLaren,

CEO and founder of Combate Global.

He's been around since the beginning of what we know

as modern MMA.

In 1993, he co-founded the UFC.

He marketed the first UFC shows and was a tireless promoter.

He tried to get Fallon Fox back in the cage,

or La Jaula for Combate,

but she told them she was outta the fight game

because of her bad knees.

She gave them my name while she was convincing me

that I had what it takes to make it in MMA.

I'd say the timing worked out perfectly,

if it weren't for an unprecedented global pandemic.

(dial tone droning)

- [Mike] Hey, Alana,

this is Mike Afrmowitz from Combate Americas, how are you?

Pro debuts, you know,

typically it's very different from,

you know, training in the gym,

from sparring, very different from even amateur fights.

You know, when those lights go on,

you know, typically sometimes fighters,

they tense up.

But you know, that's something you just need to be aware of

and prepare yourself more mentally, so.

- Yeah, definitely like, I'm ready.

- [Mike] What weight will you be fighting at.

- 145. - Okay, yeah,

that's what I thought.

(gentle instrumental music)

Well, there it is,

my shot at another career,

this time a professional mixed martial arts fighter.

Is this some sort of PR stunt

or is there another motive here?

At least I know Fallon has my back.

That's the thing, every fight promotion's a PR thing.

You know, and I think with MMA

they've had a fine line to tread because, you know,

you remember back in the '90s it was human fighting.

It was a blood sport, it was banned in most states.

And now they're trying to tread that line

between legitimate sport and spectacle,

because let's be real, you know,

when you think about mixed martial arts,

you're not thinking about it the way

you think about football, or basketball,

or something.

You know, people that are fight fans,

they want to see blood.

- You look for a fighter

that you can really create a story about,

and hopefully buzz, and hopefully hype,

and get people interested in a particular fight.

That's what a promoter does.

And for me it's a ton of fun.

With Alana, it was a very,

very different approach.

There's so much hate

around transgender athletes that I didn't want to go

into it in a way that was going to cause a stir.

Alana's had enough trouble from people

that don't think she should even exist,

that I didn't wanna put a giant target on her back.

- [Narrator #11] Broadcasting from the heart of Portland,

rise and shine everyone,

and get ready to rock your morning blues away.

- I'd say cue the inspirational training montage,

but unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

Combate Global offered me a fight down in Miami,

ironically my dad's hometown,

but without having an opponent lined up yet.

So my plan is to get in shape

and work on my technique in the meantime,

which takes me to my next problem.

There's no MMA in Portland that will train me.

Time to hurry up and wait.

- Alright, well,

today we'll get our feet and our hands warmed up.

Maybe jump rope a little bit.

- Hmm. - And then work on

some of your power shots, wanna work on your upper cut

and your right hook.

- Alright. - But in between

I wanna work on double jab too.

- Okay. - Trying to get in.

- Yeah, 'cause right now I'm still just like,

I mean, I'm basically trans girl Tank Abbott.

Just, "What's your style?"

"Pit fighting." - It's hard.

Learning skills are hard.

- Alright. - Let's get to it.

(Alana exhaling) (blows thudding)

Breathe.

Go.

One at a time.

So we're gonna breathe until you feel like you're recharged,

- Okay. - and throw another hard one.

Okay.

- I mean, let's be real,

when it comes to sports,

the thing that people are off about

is trans women being included.

We had Laurel Hubbard at the Olympics, Lia Thomas,

but the pushback has been worse than I expected.

There is a concentrated group, like,

a very vocal group pushing really hard

for trans women to be excluded.

- He can take his male body

and compete against other male bodies, and fair enough.

And then can go dress how he wants

and act how he wants in his personal life, no problem.

- Males do have a performance advantage

that's based on their biological sex.

Picking testosterone is a red herring,

I mean, we are forgetting about the anatomy,

the fast-twitch muscle, the bigger organs.

- For the people who are pushing this level of hysteria,

it isn't about sports at all.

It's about the erasure

of transgender people from society as a whole.

- We're being told that trans women

should not be allowed to compete

because we are actually men.

And it's not fucking true, it's not true.

- In many ways, this is no different than the hysteria

we saw about gay and lesbian people in the 1970s and 1980s

that have just been repackaged

and repurposed for a new time and the new target.

- The conversation and emphasis on trans athletes

has been part of a much longer political strategy

to try to center and dehumanize trans people

in the US and globally.

Many news outlets, many academics have written

about the way in which trans people

and trans athletes specifically are being used

as a political tool.

- MMA is probably one of the sports

where people are most gonna be off

about a trans woman participating

because of the violent aspect

of the sport in the first place.

- You know, I have a daughter,

I have, you know,

mother, girls I love,

and it's just to watch what a man can do to a girl,

it's something that I don't feel like I could watch.

Alana says she's a woman and has some estrogen,

but the truth is, she was born a man,

she grew up a man, she has the lungs of a man,

the skulls of a man, she has the body of a man.

So, you know,

maybe she feels like a woman inside, but she's just not.

- They make all these bullshit arguments about,

"Oh, you know,

you have these unfair advantages, and bone density,

and all this", fuck that,

it is not held up by scientific inquiry.

You know, in fact,

I've seen studies that show trans women as a population.

I'm not sure why, don't know if it's sociological factors

as opposed to physical, but like trans women

as a population statistically have lower bone density

than cisgender women, and I would say

it's probably economic issues more than anything.

- People are really misinformed about this,

and they come at it from a position of anger, emotion,

hate, whether it's religious,

or philosophical, or political.

I think they don't really understand what's going on here.

When people first hear transgender fighter, former military,

they're like,

"No, we don't want that.

We don't need that, we don't think that should even exist."

- Anyway, not great news.

Had the fight fall through again, no opponent again.

But it was nice to actually hear something.

So even though we're looking at June 25th now,

which is a day before I turned 38, for fucks sake.

Fallon just messaged me, said,

"Please knock people out with those knees."

(blows thudding) (Alana exhaling)

- I'm really struggling to get through this fucking workout.

Fuck.

- What Alana is describing and going through right now

in terms of difficulty finding a coach,

can't find somebody to fight her, can't find other folks

or allies locally to really support her in a real way.

That is something that every single one of the athletes

we're in contact with have that same issue.

- Process of getting in the gym for Alana

was not an easy one.

There were a lot that they didn't wanna accept her.

- The fact that it's hard for her to get

a place to train where she feels comfortable,

where she feels welcome is something

that weighs heavy on her a lot.

But she still figures it out.

(blows thudding)

- MMA, the sport, it's weird anyway.

There's tons of people that are addicted to testosterone

or they're doing EPO.

There's weight cutting, there's rampant steroid use.

- There's a hypocrisy surrounding trans athletes

that's impossible to ignore.

Caitlyn Jenner says trans women

shouldn't participate in women's sports,

but she herself competed in a women's golf tournament.

Jake Shields complains that I have unfair advantages,

but he's been suspended for using band substances.

- People wanna focus on trans fighters because it's easy.

It's easy to say that this person is doing it

to have an edge.

- All the people that tell me I should have to fight men,

I legally couldn't and it be sanctioned, you know?

By every legal standard I'm a woman.

You know, my hormones are where they're supposed to be.

My birth certificate, driver's license,

social security card all say female where it says sex.

I've been open about who I am the fucking whole time,

I've passed every test.

There are plenty of cis women that are doping

that still get to fight.

I invested a lot in not having testosterone in my body.

I'm sure as shit not reintroducing any.

- There's not gonna be real money

or fame for Alana in the end.

She's doing it because she's always been an athlete,

and always been a woman, and wants to fight.

She should be able to do that without this abuse,

without threats online,

without feeling like somebody might kill you any moment.

That's fucked up.

- Trans athletes always have an advantage.

You look at men, they dominate every sports.

That's the reason why we give women's divisions.

By allowing trans,

we're taking away what women work so hard for.

I think people say like,

"Oh, you're not being inclusive in this",

but what about the girls that care?

What about their feelings?

They've worked so hard.

You know, to take their rights over a few people,

to take it from the thousands of women

that work so hard for sports.

That's probably why they should either make a trans league

or compete against men, you know?

- I'm the second openly trans woman in MMA,

who the fuck am I gonna fight?

- I only know one transgender fighter in the entire world.

What is she gonna do?

Shadow box.

You know, I can't start a league with one person.

- Women's MMA is barely able to field

any kind of competition in the first place,

because it's pretty small as it is.

You think an even smaller category

is gonna be able to make it, like,

that's called segregation,

and historically it hasn't worked out for people.

They don't care that women are underpaid,

they don't care that women don't have access

to the same facilities.

They will tell you that women's sports

aren't as good as men's sport.

Like, they don't care about women's sports

until it is an opportunity for them

to shit on trans women, that's it.

- So one of the major myths we hear is that.

- Pretty soon there'll be no women's sports.

It'll just be men that couldn't hack it as pros,

they'll switch and become women,

and they'll go dominate women's sports.

That'll be the future of women's sports if this keeps going.

- And that is a major one I wanna debunk right now.

If we take the Olympics and Paralympics as an example,

the first transgender policy put forth

by the IOC was in 2004.

So between 2004 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2021,

over 50,000 athletes competed.

Not a single athlete was openly trans

until the Tokyo Olympics

when one openly trans woman competed in weightlifting

and she did not medal, she could not even finish her lifts.

1 athlete, 50,000 athletes

over two decades.

- We are statistically underrepresented.

You know, in a more just world,

there would be people asking questions like,

"Why aren't there more trans women in sports?"

- People have a lot of feelings about trans athletes

and about what they're seeing in the media,

but it's not actually backed up

by the facts of what is actually happening.

Because essentially what we're saying

when we make these comments about women's sports in general,

is that we don't believe

that women can be powerful athletes.

That if a woman is too fast, too strong,

too good, too powerful,

oh, then there's no way she can actually be a woman.

- I think it's a little bit of a lack of control of the men.

This was always our thing.

Now all of a sudden the women are jumping in,

and they're good, and they're good at it,

and they're fun to watch, and they're extremely talented,

worth investing in.

And that's probably scares a lot of the pro men athletes.

- I'm hungry. - Yeah, me too.

What do you wanna get? - I don't know.

- Tai, Mexican? - Anything.

I need to watch my weight though.

- [Alana] You need to watch your weight?

I'm the one got a fight coming up.

- Have you heard anything about a new fight yet?

Like, have they found anything at all or?

- Like, I don't know who I'll be fighting,

I don't know when I'll be fighting,

I just know I'll be going down to train and that's it.

Like, they've floated a couple people

who have turned it down. - Yeah.

- I've been in the business 14 years now,

in the fight business 20 years,

and I've never had a more challenging task

than finding Alana McLaughlin an opponent.

- A lot of us have been trained to protect women

as men protecting women.

And I think that really comes out

in the traditional business of fighting.

So I think the male coaches, the male trainers

are very protective of their girl fighters.

And the idea of the girl they're protecting fighting this,

however they think of a transgender fighter,

they just don't want to do it.

We couldn't find an opponent.

The fight community was really against it.

- I don't care what you want to do to yourself,

go crazy, change whatever you wanna change,

whatever makes you happy, go for it,

I don't care.

When it comes to fighting and competing,

I think it's a complete different story,

and I think it shouldn't be allowed.

(Jasmin speaking in Spanish)

- The reactions range from,

"I don't believe in transgender fighters

being allowed to compete"

to "How could you even ask me this question?"

You know, there were people that were offended.

- My luck, they'll put me up against fucking Cris Cyborg

or some shit and I'll just get

trashed a bit. - Well, I hope not

for your sake, you know? - Yeah, I hope not too.

- Yeah, cool.

Well, I mean, I'm glad that,

you know, there's talk about it,

but hopefully you'll land something soon.

- Yeah, hopefully. - Yeah.

- Fingers crossed. - I'm sure you will.

- Yeah. - One of the first times

where I actually spent some quality time with Alana,

walked into like a local cidery,

and then we were talking, you know,

and she goes, "Hey, have you seen my,

you know, pre-transition pictures?"

She showed me and and I go,

"Oh yeah,

I don't know that person, you know?"

And she goes,

"Yeah, I don't think I really did either."

- She's a fighter at her core,

but she's also one of the sweetest people I know.

If someone needed housing,

she always had her couch available,

she would give them her own bed if they needed.

You know, she's always been there for people

when they're at their lowest.

- [Alana] But now you were asking about the pie,

I've done two in the past couple days.

- Oh really?

Oh good. - Amazing.

- See, I was wondering if I had the opportunity

to bring that up. - Well, listen,

really, what's wrong with that?

- No, you make pies for everyone.

- I do, I do. - Yeah.

- And then before that I did one.

(gentle instrumental music)

I've always wanted somewhere kind of comfortable and just,

I don't know, comfortable and nice where I can just relax

and don't have to worry about all the bullshit, you know?

A forever home, you know,

like I'm some kind of stray cat.

But no, I just want a little place of my own,

you know, I like woods and trees,

and I'd like to have a pointy little house

with maybe a couple goats and some chickens.

I'd like to keep bees, I think.

And for hedges out front, I want wild roses

and blackberry bushes.

Baking can absolutely be relaxing

as long as you're not messing up your recipe,

then it is substantially less relaxing.

But no, it's enjoyable for me.

There's no pressure and just make something sweet,

and nice, and pretty,

and share it with my friends.

(gentle instrumental music)

Just when I think I can relax and enjoy my blackberry pie,

the Internet's blowing up.

It's wild how much things have changed

since those early days on Tumblr,

it almost feels like a more innocent time

compared to the posts and comments I see now.

When Fallon was fighting in 2014,

a lot of people being transphobic,

it was just out of ignorance

because they didn't really know any better.

Now, I would say the landscape has shifted in that

as soon as right wingers, as soon as Republicans

lost the marriage equality fight in the Supreme Court,

they shifted their focus

and they knew trans people were gonna be

their best shot at a new boogeyman.

Half of the people that I've been face to face with

in the streets are in jail right now

for trying to storm the Capitol on January 6th.

What happens is, you know,

you see flyers for a bunch of fucking right wing shitheads

saying they're gonna fly into town

and cleanse the streets of Portland with fire.

And then everybody in the community goes,

"Oh, this is fucked up,

we can't let them do this."

And then everybody shows up, and that's how that goes.

I've actually had three friends die.

I had another friend get stabbed in the neck.

It was fucking dangerous.

You know, like I get easily thousands of death threats.

I think back in 2014,

most of the transphobia was still out of ignorance.

Where now it's basically a political statement.

A big part of that's appealing

to some regressive notion of tradition.

You know, like women belong in the home

and only men belong out in the world doing things.

Ultimately, I think most transphobia boils down to sexism,

just repackaged.

Now it's become more hate based.

And if you put yourself out there on the internet,

you become a target for vitriol and abuse.

It leads to violence. (crowds yelling)

It's on the streets, on the TV networks,

on social media.

The hatred is at a boiling point.

(water splashing)

- If decide tomorrow that I was a 47-year-old woman,

should I be allowed to go shower in a women's locker room?

- First off, I'm not a fucking man.

I'm not a predator, I'm not a bathroom predator.

If a man wants to abuse your child or your wife,

a fucking sign on the bathroom door isn't gonna stop him.

You know what I do in the bathroom?

I piss.

I piss, I wash my hands, and I leave.

- [Interviewer #3] Rules that are set by sporting bodies.

- It's not fair, is it? - By governing bodies.

- It's just not fair. - No, but you've got to make

sure that it is fair. - And it's damaging

to woman's rights. - That is my point

in this conversation. - It's got nothing to do

with women's rights.

You don't care about women in sports,

you don't care about women's sports.

You don't care that women are paid less.

All you wanna do is make sure I can't play.

You wanna make sure Lia Thomas can't swim.

You wanna make sure that Laurel Hubbard can't lift weights.

- [Narrator #12] It also states any form of homosexuality

or transgender identity

is "sinful in the sight of God and the church."

- It doesn't say anything in the Bible about trans women.

It really doesn't say anything about gay people.

So don't gimme any bullshit

about how your religion doesn't agree with my existence.

Fuck that.

- I think the only problem that I have

with that transitioning thing

is physical competition, that's it,

a physical competition. - You want me in that cage.

You want to be able to point at me

and talk about that monster over there, that abomination,

that scary, disgusting creature

that's corrupting your children

and destroying women's sports.

That's what you want.

You want me in there.

So fucking get me a fight.

(suspenseful music)

- [Celine] My name is Celine Provost,

I'm a teacher in university.

- I found Celine through a manager contact

who was managing another fighter that fights for Combate.

Luckily he had somebody

and he had somebody like Celine

that was willing to take the challenge.

- I agreed because it was a chance for me to fight again,

no matter, you know,

who the opponent was, transgender or not,

it was not an issue to me.

But after it got me to look into, you know,

who transgender were,

and since I've been into gender studies,

I think it's a good thing.

To be honest with you,

I'm not sure there are any transgender athlete in France.

And I think it will be like a 50% for and 50% against,

because France is a country where you have

a lot of chauvinist guys.

For female fighters, we need way more female fighters,

way more transgender fighters to have

so that they're alleged in the eyes of the people.

- [Alana] Celine is pretty hardcore.

Set aside that I'm trans, but I have no record,

no tape to watch, and I'm a former special forces operator.

It's a scary fight.

Win or lose, I have nothing but respect for her.

So one seemingly impossible task done, just one more left.

What gym will have me?

- Combate does all it shows here in Miami.

I love the weather, I love the food,

it's just a great home for us.

But in a way it was very unwelcoming for Alana.

We went to 9 gyms before we found the 10th

that agreed to train her.

- [Alana] The final breakthrough, a gym that'll train me.

Thank you MMA Masters.

Now let's get it on.

Miami, here comes Lady Feral.

(suspenseful music)

(blows thudding) - Hey.

(suspenseful music)

- Mike, the vice president for Combate Global,

he contact us and he told us this situation.

I say, "Yes, man.

Here we don't judge people.

We are coach, my job is to coach people."

- She wound up at one of the best training centers,

if not the best, in Miami.

(upbeat music)

(singer singing in Spanish)

(upbeat music)

- We officially started the gym back in 2009.

A lot of great MMA fighters here.

- Now we have Colby Covington, we have Amanda Nunes,

you know, she's still the champion.

We have a lot of, you know,

high level fighters here.

- And we have a lot of guys combating in Combate Global.

Great fights and a great show, and it's been amazing.

- So when I first came into this camp,

I definitely was intimidated.

While it's a much different environment,

I definitely had some shades of walking into basic training,

you know, and basically I just kind of played it cool.

- Oh, I knew she was very rough.

I knew that we didn't have enough time

to improve her game a lot.

- Yeah, she's an ex-military,

so you know, she has the courage,

she has the heart.

You don't need too much sometimes in the MMA fight,

but the more you stay basic with your foundation,

the stronger you get, you stay in the fight.

- We tried to do as best we could

to get her ready for the fight.

(upbeat music)

- Got a gym, got an opponent,

so now I gotta fight.

The training is no joke.

It took so much work to get here and now I don't feel ready.

These fighters are years and levels above me,

and who knows if they'll even accept me.

Are they talking about me behind my back?

I feel alone here.

My friends feel so far away

and there's no family to lean on.

Portland is chaos,

but it's hard to tell a friend from foe in Miami,

can I really trust my team?

(gentle instrumental music)

So we're at the cemetery where my grandfather's buried,

'cause I knew he was buried in the area.

He grew up here in Hialeah and so did my dad.

But of course, I'm not in contact with my family,

so I couldn't call them and ask them where he's buried.

So actually, there was like an internet post about

the AIDS Quilt, because my grandfather died

in the AIDS crisis in 1996.

So yeah, I reached out to my networks

and turned out some people that were following me

were part of like mortuary services and stuff.

So they did some research for me

and they found out where he was.

Just strangers on the internet.

(gentle instrumental music)

(gentle instrumental music continues)

(cars whirring)

Yeah, I don't know. - How does it feel now?

- I couldn't say. - Okay.

(gentle instrumental music)

- So I've been living out of a hotel

for over two months now.

I worked my off every day.

The coaches said to go to as many classes as I can,

so that's what I do.

I'm in Miami, but I've barely seen anything

but the gym and the hotel.

Not like I have a social life here anyway.

- Every day, every single day,

you know, she's very like consistent.

Like every day here, every day doing the same technique

over and over again.

And patient, a lot of patience.

She's very nice.

- I want to open doors.

I want people to say,

"Okay, trans people are just like anybody else",

and that we deserve a place in public

along with anyone else.

We deserve to be part of athletic programs.

We deserve to exist in public life.

This fight, it's not the most important one,

but it's definitely one of the most important steps

along the way, because it's definitely

not gonna be given to us.

- Look, I really believe in giving people opportunity,

I really do, it's why I started this company.

And certainly Alana deserves an opportunity.

As the head of the company, I had to be really aware,

we were using a lot of resources

just to get her a training camp.

Do I think she's worth it?

Yeah, hell yeah.

That's why we did it.

But I don't want anyone to think

this was an easy thing to do.

We didn't go over the top in promoting it,

we just put her on the card.

I wanted to give her a shot and that's what I did.

(Dumar speaking in Spanish)

(Cristian speaking in Spanish)

- To say something positive is so hard,

but to say something negative,

to get people attention,

oh, that's very fast.

I don't allow that here, you know?

They know that our mentality here,

we are the coaches and we have open mind.

We don't care about like what you want,

what you are doing outside,

as long as you come and respect the gym,

that's what we want,

and that's why I think that's what they want too.

- Like everybody has this idea in their heads

of a trans woman as being

like some six and a half foot tall ogre

that's 400 pounds of muscle with warts and hair,

and like, That's not what we are.

This is a sport.

There are rules, there are referees,

there are doctors.

I'm 5'7", I'm fighting at 145.

Pre-transition I was walking around 190 pounds,

like 6% body fat, eating anything I wanted,

didn't have to put in that much time at the gym.

And now I'm in there every day busting my ass

- I don't know for everybody,

but for me, no problem.

(Cristian speaking in Spanish)

(Mariel speaking in Spanish)

- Hard worker, respectful,

and she put in the work, you know,

and that's all I need here.

Be respectful, show up for class on time,

listen it to the coach, and that's it.

We've never had a problem.

- I'm nervous because I'm excited,

because man, just being in that,

I feel like I'm fighting.

- Everyone's treated me well,

we've had really good training.

I've gotten, you know,

lots of personal attention from lots of amazing fighters,

and everybody on the team has been great.

- [Cesar] Yeah, she improved a lot and she's very,

very, very intelligent.

- [Marino] You just need to keep training,

just keep tightening it up,

sharpening up our tools and just keep pushing, you know?

(suspenseful music)

(blows thudding)

(suspenseful music)

(suspenseful music)

- I am checked into the fight hotel.

I'm firmly in the COVID bubble.

Boom. (plane whirring)

Almost there.

(suspenseful music)

So this is a little personal sauna.

The promotion has provided these for all the fighters

to help us make weight.

It's pumping steam directly into here,

so you get heated up inside here, lets you work up a sweat.

Combate Global kept their cards close to the chest.

They didn't hype the fight and kept it on the undercard,

but "The Guardian" just ran an article on me,

so I think people are gonna know about it.

This cat's out of the proverbial bag.

(suspenseful music)

- [Interviewer #4] Why are you so angry?

- Because we just went over for the PCR testing for COVID,

because of this damn pandemic, when will it end?

And one of my teammates walked up wearing MAGA hat.

And yeah, like nothing makes my blood boil

like seeing that shit.

I guess apparently Colby gave it to him,

and considering the release of the article yesterday

and trans flag everywhere, and you know,

I wonder if that was a calculated move

to throw me off, you know?

So that's the thing about this

is you're supposed to be able to trust

the people in your gym to have your best interest in mind.

And it's really hard to believe that

when I see that shit out there, you know?

Oh, there he goes.

There he fucking goes, awesome.

He's always been decent to me in the gym.

But, you know,

all this bullshit about civility politics, like,

how am I supposed to be civil when somebody's walking around

with a sign on their head that says,

"Fuck you, die", you know?

So yeah, I'm a little angry.

- You know, I think Alana feels very strongly

about the right wing of the Republican party,

right wing Americans, the MAGA Americans.

And I don't believe it's because

she doesn't think people have

the right to express themselves.

I think she believes those group of people

and that type of thinking has led, literally,

to death threats.

And it's one thing if you disagree with somebody,

but it's quite another thing

if death threats follow the disagreement.

And I know she's had death threats.

I have seen them, I've seen them online,

I've heard what people say about her.

I think for Alana, this is not merely a political debate,

I think this is quite literally a life or death situation.

You know, I keep saying to her,

"You don't have to fight every fight.

Wearing an Antifa hat is not gonna endear you to people.

You gotta think about, are you trying to bring people

to your side or are you trying to fight everyone?"

- Our next fighter to set foot on the scales

is three rounds, featherweight division.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

Out of Paris, France,

Celine Provost on the scale.

(suspenseful music)

142.6.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

Debuting inside of La Jaula out of Portland,

Oregon, on the scale,

Alana McLaughlin.

(suspenseful music)

144.6.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(suspenseful music)

(suspenseful music)

- First time I've broadcast any sport

with a transgender or trans athlete.

I don't know what's gonna happen,

but I'm really curious to see

what the conversation's gonna be like afterwards.

- [Alana] Don't think I've ever been this popular.

- I was impressed that it was promoted in a respectful way

and not made into a spectacle.

I think it was promoted

just like any other undercard pro debut fight

would've been promoted in the women's division

or the men's division.

- I think we're both probably gonna come forward

and meet in the middle.

And I expect her to try to use her reach

to keep me on the outside,

and I'm gonna try to get my way inside,

and either go for the take down or really punish her body.

(gentle instrumental music)

- [Interviewer #5] What kind of fight are you expecting?

- From my part, technical one.

From her part, maybe brawl,

because I'm pretty sure she would like to punch my body

and get to my legs.

- I've been telling her to try not to be nervous (laughs)

and just go out there and give her her best,

and use every bit of technique that she's learned.

- I'd like to be like,

"Oh yeah, I'm gonna be a world champion one day",

like that's what every fighter wants.

But the fact of the matter is I'm making my debut at 38,

so I'm just going to go in here and run it as long as I can.

Let's just see how many fights I can get.

- It is Miami, it's a Friday night,

and you know what that means?

Another massive card,

two undefeated fighters looking to stay that way,

and also a historic moment in mixed martial arts.

We will get to all of that here shortly,

but allowing me to make the introductions.

My name is Max Bretos,

and we're joined today by Rodolfo Roman.

How are you doing, Rodolfo?

- Thank you, Max.

Absolutely great,

looking forward to a stellar fight card tonight.

We have a great one, including history.

♪ Oh say, can you see - Fight night.

No matter how much

♪ By the dawns early light - weight I cut,

I feel the crushing weight of expectation on my shoulders.

I'm the first trans fighter to do this since Fallon Fox,

and the world's a different place.

I just don't wanna let anyone down.

- I was excited leading up to that fight,

I was excited on the night of it,

but I had no idea what was coming.

You have all the pre-fight stuff, all the pre-interviews,

all those things, and then it was time.

And seeing Celine Provost first come out into the cage,

that said, I'm ready for this.

- Celine is a tough fighter, over towers her.

What she needs to do is play that reach to her advantage.

- And then Alana comes up.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Karleigh] And then she unfurls this flag,

arms stretched out.

And at that point I'm smiling

and I'm also have a little bit of happy tears going,

because at that moment that was Alana sending a message

that we needed.

That so many of us as trans people living out in the world,

and in many ways in a bunker mentality,

we needed to see her stepping out with pride and saying,

"Yes, I am Alana McLaughlin,

this is who I am."

(presenters speaking in Spanish)

- [Karleigh] And when she walked in that cage at that point,

it was nothing but pride.

And no one can say anything to take that away.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Presenter #1] Introducing the blue corner, wearing black.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Presenter #1] Her official weight, 142.5 pounds.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Presenter #1] She enters La Jaula

for the second time as a pro, with a record of one defeat.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Presenter #1] Celine "Tall Blondie" Provost.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Presenter #1] Her opponent in the red corner,

wearing white.

She tipped the scales at an official 144.5 pounds.

Tonight inside of La Jaula

she is making her professional debut,

fighting out of Portland, Oregon.

"Lady Feral" Alana McLaughlin.

- [Alana] Other fighters have their struggles,

but they couldn't handle what it took me to get here.

I always hate when fighters say it's war in the cage.

I've been to war and this ain't it.

I like this kind of fight.

Nobody's dying, there are rules,

there's a ref, my opponent doesn't hate me for being trans.

She just wants to beat me and I wanna beat her.

I could really use a win.

I need this win.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(bell chimes)

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Max] Provost comes out swinging as we expected.

- [Rodolfo] And we can see it right here,

right from the get go, Max,

playing the distance, using her hands,

her kicks. - Hands up.

Hands up. - Alana not looking like

the stronger fighter,

and taking a ton of punishment coming in.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(upbeat music)

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Rodolfo] Celine connected there, very, very hard.

Oh, and another right hook.

- [Max] Just ton of activity, a ralley of punches

from Provost. - Body, body.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(upbeat music)

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Rodolfo] A bit white cross.

And Celine's gonna keep going for that one, two.

- [Max] Alana with a big uppercut.

- Hands up. - Now, Alana is just swinging

for the fences to see if she catches her.

Celine being the smart fighter, very technical,

very skilled.

And that's exactly what she's doing with that one, two,

which has been working all along.

- [Max] Two minutes to go in this opening round.

McLaughlin observing pressures.

- [Rodolfo] Alana needs to keep her hands up

and her head up.

(presenters speaking in Spanish)

- [Max] Alana just swinging here.

Right from McLaughlin, with a second overhead.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Rodolfo] Now what Celine needs to do

is that one, two move, one, two, move.

It's more like she's throwing and she backs off.

If she's continuous, she can have this in the pocket

and call it a day. - Yes.

(upbeat music)

- [Max] Come on, set it off.

(gavels banging)

We will take a break.

A fascinating first round between Provost and McLaughlin.

We'll take a quick break back

and be back for ground number 2.

(presenters speaking in Spanish)

(upbeat music)

- [Medic #1] Breathe, breathe, breath.

Big breath, big breath.

- [Marino] Remember, hey,

you gotta keep pressure, but you gotta keep your hands up.

You gotta move your head.

You giving too much of that jab time

'cause you're keeping yourself straight, okay?

Alright, breathe, okay? (whistle shrilling)

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Referee] Ready?

(bells chiming)

- [Max] Back here for round number two.

A different looking Alana McLaughlin,

she took a lot of punishment.

(presenters speaking in Spanish)

- [Rodolfo] You can see that Celine's

trying to go for the kick to the midsection or the rib area,

but it was blocked by that elbow from Alana.

(presenters speaking in Spanish)

(suspenseful music)

- [Max] Oh, McLaughlin coming up big,

and now Provost has to survive.

A lot of punishments, the knees coming in.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator #13] And again.

(suspenseful music)

- [Max] Does pretty well, gets her on the ground,

now we can see how her ground game.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

Alana McLaughlin has absorbed a lot of pressure,

but now has the upper hand.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

(suspenseful music)

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Max] McLaughlin's got the back of Provost

and now she starts. - We have rear naked choke.

- And a tap. - And a tap.

- [Max] Alana McLaughlin, victorious in her MMA debut

via the rear naked choke.

Had to take a lot of pressure to get there, but she did.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- We have just witnessed history.

I'll be honest, it was a weird sensation

as a broadcaster to go through that,

to talk about these fights.

But something that we were able to see

and something we take away from all of this.

- [Presenter #1] Ladies and gentlemen,

the red corner sinks in a rear naked choke,

forcing her opponent to tap,

with an official time of three minutes,

32 seconds of round number two,

your winner in way of submission.

(presenter speaking in Spanish)

- [Presenter #1] "Lady Farrell" Alana Mclaughlin.

- I remember seeing her on screen

that moment when they announced her name

and this little smile went over her face,

and I could see the intense pride that she had

for herself at that moment, which made me so proud for her.

- That was Ali-Foreman big deal for a trans person.

And also there was the t-shirt, end trans genocide,

taking that little bit of an opportunity to send the message

that needed to be sent.

I wrote in "Outsports"

that it was like a wake was drafting behind her.

And in that wake were 1.6 million transgender people

right along with her.

- I dedicate this fight to my friends

and comrades back in Portland,

everybody that's stuck with me the whole way.

Again, my team, amazing.

I can't thank them enough.

- To me that was a very good way for this to happen.

Like the people said, you had such huge advantage,

and this and that,

and you got your ass beat in that first round,

you got rocked that one time.

I thought the round was over when she got hit like that,

- Once she hit me a few times, like rocked me real good,

my game plan kind of went out the window,

and I just started fighting on instinct, and emotion,

and it's not really what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be a lot more crisp and technical in there

and it just kind of turned into a brawl.

(Marino humming)

- I think Celine was a tough opponent, you know,

she rocked her a couple of times,

surprised her a couple of times.

- She's really representing transgender athletes

and representing transgender people well.

And I can't wait to see what she has to do in the future.

- Alana said to me, if she wins,

she wins because she's a woman that's really a man.

And if she loses then she's, you know,

just a real weakling.

She couldn't win.

There was no outcome that her detractors would not say,

"Look how bad she is."

I think winning with jujitsu was good

because jujitsu is a martial art that emphasizes skill,

not strength, not brutality,

not brute force.

And so for her to win this way,

it's just the best possible outcome.

- She's tough as nails,

gosh, she's tough.

I thanked her.

What I said to her was, nous defions,

which is French for we defy.

It was one of the slogans

of the French resistance fighters back in World War II.

And then it got rolled over into like special operations,

and it felt appropriate at the time.

The gravity of the situation hasn't really sunk in yet,

I guess.

Like I know a lot of people are gonna have a lot to say.

What's next for me, hopefully,

is another fight.

(suspenseful music)

(suspenseful music)

We got a lot of positive messages from,

I would say probably mostly queer and trans people.

Ad I'm really happy to have been able

to elbow my way in there

and get some representation, you know?

The problem is, like,

because I'm trans

and because there has been so much public backlash,

or there's been very loud backlash,

anyone that would speak in support of me

is probably too afraid to.

A lot of folks in the right wing

are looking for a scapegoat.

They have a vested interest in letting that outrage

continue to be generated, because they make money off of it.

- Today for our daily cancellation,

we turn to the story of MMA fighter and woman beater,

Alana McLaughlin.

During the Combate Global prelims on Friday night,

McLaughlin fought and easily defeated Celine Provost,

another MMA fighter.

To be more specific, after beating her across the head

and the body for a couple of rounds,

he eventually got her into a submission hold

and choked her out.

This was, again,

a man beating the crap out of a woman.

- Once you get violence into the equation, right,

then all of a sudden there has to be

a little bit of pushback.

Like, do you want these bitches being beat up

by a dude who's like an ex-Navy seal?

- Just look at this

as like an animal observing two other animals

in a combat mode.

And you can clearly see which one

has a higher likelihood of harming the other one.

- Like more people have been sort of speaking out about it,

but they still tiptoe around it

and like use correct pronouns, or pretend like there's

some kind of major difference between a person

who says they're a trans woman and a male,

and there really isn't.

So I was pretty like grateful to see you just call it out

and be like, "No, fuck this."

- No, I'm just not okay with men beating up women,

it's just disgusting and wrong.

Being an athlete, I know,

this might be a little sexist,

but the difference between men and women is so big.

I mean, I'm world class obviously,

so there might be cases of a good girl beating a bum guy,

that definitely could happen.

But like once you get to high levels,

the difference is just so massive, it's so far from fair.

Yeah, when I saw the fight

and I saw the two trans athletes celebrating, you know,

who'd both beaten up women, I thought it was sick.

And being a fighter, you know,

I had to go speak my mind,

and Twitter doesn't leave much room for nuance.

So I wasn't saying trans people are necessarily perverse,

more saying them fighting women are sick and perverse,

- You know, if someone loudly declares themselves my enemy,

I believe them.

If you hate me, I hate you right back.

I'm not going outta my way to ruin someone else's life,

but they sure as shit are trying to do it to me.

- Putting herself out there in this very, like,

international public way to be, you know,

a target of transphobic hate.

I do know that it bothers her,

and I've seen it, but I've also seen her rise above it.

- Look at her Twitter, like,

she says something to somebody,

and they answer thinking they've shut her down,

but she's set them up.

It's the same as, you know,

like you give a punch and the fighter moves back

and you come in

or you give a kick and you move in with a punch,

she does that online.

- It's Jake Shields, right?

He posted pictures of me before and after, I guess.

It kind of demonstrates that, yeah,

I lost like 50 pounds of fucking muscle.

You know, I clearly don't have the same build that I had.

I mean, most people that see those two pictures side by side

don't think it's the same person

except the tattoos match, you know?

And so he kind of pretty clearly demonstrated my point,

and then he kind of slipped up,

and somebody said

something about me being attractive or not.

And then I think he specifically said something like,

"Well, she got hotter, yeah,

but not my type", which is just like.

- I shouldn't be allowed to have a phone,

I just tweet weird shit that pops in my head.

Like, I am obviously strongly against the trans athletes,

but a lot of it's fooling around.

You know, I was just messing around with Alana,

I don't necessarily think she's a bad person.

I don't think she should be doing what she's doing,

but I don't have, like,

hate in my heart.

You know, originally I didn't realize

that the other girl had agreed,

'cause in the vast majority of these cases,

the girls don't have a choice, they're forced to.

So that did give me, like I said,

it gave me a slightly different perspective because,

you know, I do think for the most part,

you know, adults should be able to choose what they do.

- You'll be amazing whatever you do,

you're one of those annoying people

that's good at everything you do,

and yet we still love you.

- You say that.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

We'll just have to see how shit goes.

The death threats that I get,

sometimes it's like open threats where it's like,

"Oh, we're gonna fucking kill you."

And then other times it'll just be like a string of letters,

and it's "You will never be a woman", you know?

And it's like,

"Sorry, I already am,

you can't fucking change that."

- Could I be putting trans people

in danger with my attitude?

Honestly, I've absolutely never thought about that,

'cause I get so many death threats from trans athletes

and these people, and I never really thought

that maybe they're getting the same.

You know, I certainly hope I've never done anything

to trigger anyone towards violence.

And you know, I have to be critical,

I can't not be critical of something I believe.

So I can't be responsible if someone follows me

does something crazy.

- They're literally telling you to kill yourself.

But they'll frame it in a way

where it doesn't get taken down off of social media.

Join the 41%,

because they're citing high suicide rates in trans youth.

So Jake Shields will lie to you

and say that he doesn't advocate

for violence against trans people.

But here he is tweeting about how teachers

that affirm trans kids should be tried and executed.

Like, if you search his profile for trans,

this is it, hundreds upon hundreds of tweets.

He talks more about trans people than trans people do.

Jake says that it's only about sports,

that he doesn't care about trans people otherwise,

but here he is calling trans women mentally ill,

we're deviants.

None of this has anything to do with sports.

No amount of bending over backwards

is going to win anybody over.

If you wanna stick it to the woke moralists,

then you hate trans people.

- So often social media becomes an echo chamber,

and we lose some of the other really beautiful things

that are happening around the country.

We talk again a lot about how many bills have introduced.

The exciting thing is that last year

we stopped 96% of those bills from passing.

The other really positive things

that we're seeing is just more visibility

of trans athletes overall.

You have kids and trans adults

from all over the world who are able to tune in

and see Alana come out

with a trans flag around her shoulders.

I mean, when I watched that,

I was in tears, because never in my lifetime

did I think I would see that

and did I think I would see it being celebrated.

- Will she fight again?

Look, the truth of the matter is it's very hard

to find an opponent for her, it just is.

The truth is, you know,

she's in her late 30s.

The truth is people are attracted to see her fight

maybe for the wrong reasons.

Whatever it is that we hear or read about Alana,

that's not gonna change anyone's mind.

Her commitment to making sure everyone is protected,

making sure everyone has the right

to express their point of view, even her haters,

these are the strengths of Alana,

and that's what will convince people

that transgender people are people, they're not monsters.

I don't think it's Alana's fighting that will change minds.

I think it's Alana's thinking

and talking that will change people's minds.

(gentle instrumental music)

(cars honking) (gentle instrumental music)

- It's ironic that one of the few places

I felt in peace was in the cage.

It's out here that I feel like I'm a war,

outgunned and behind enemy lines.

The fight last year hasn't launched an MMA career.

A year later and I'm still waiting for another fight.

Hell, I'm still trying to find a place to train in Portland

where I'm actually welcome.

I don't really know what it looks like

to win the public opinion more, but the fight has elevated

my profile in the trans community.

Sometimes people tell me I'm a role model,

but I don't know if I believe it.

I certainly have more followers now, more fans,

but a lot more people screaming for my blood too.

Sometimes I stand alongside giants, people like Chelsea.

She's another army veteran who spent seven years in prison

for taking a stand, even starting her transition there.

- How's it going? - Good, how are you?

You too. - Good to meet you.

Are there folks that you know around here?

- I'm not sure that I do.

- Do I know you?

- Well, people that know me, yes.

Vice versa, not so much. - Yeah.

- But yeah. - How are things

going in general, like in life?

- [Alana] I got.

- I had to bring the shirt. - Yeah, I mean,

I almost wore that shirt today,

and I'm glad I didn't

because then one of us would've had to change.

- No, would've just both worn it.

Girl, one thing,

in case you didn't know, I'm just telling you,

what you did in that ring helped me go out to Omaha

and do that, 'cause that scared the piss outta me.

- Scary shit. - It is, I mean.

- Nobody can hurt you like family, right?

- Tell me about it.

A personal anecdote, when I went home this past summer,

family hadn't seen me in four years.

They hadn't seen me since the medical nuts

and bolts of my transition.

They hadn't seen me since I started that.

So in a sense it was coming out.

And you wanna talk about fear?

That was fear.

I hadn't felt that level of fear and anxiety,

probably since I was a little kid.

One of the things that got me through that

was just that image of Alana bringing that flag out,

walking down that gangway towards that cage.

That bucked me up.

What she's done in terms of using her voice

and her activism,

and continuing to speak out about trans rights

and continuing to speak out about things

that have nothing to do with sports.

Be open about mental health, be open about PTSD,

be open about the experiences that she went through

in the military, and be critical of them.

That is something people need to hear, because in a sense,

she's an example of how our society chews people up

and spits 'em out.

She's a transgender veteran,

she fought for your right to hate her.

And think about the lunacy of that sentence for a second.

- Well, I decided to walk out with the trans flag

instead of the American flag, because frankly,

the American flag, for a lot of people,

it doesn't stand for anything good, you know?

You know, I've said it before,

but it's safer in that ring

than it is out here in the fucking streets.

I didn't have a gun pointed in my face in the cage,

and I've had that happen here.

- She's gonna go in and fight the good fight in every fight.

And I think, you know,

ultimately that's a tough way to live.

And I think what Alana needs to do is figure out

what's important for her, and focus her prodigious

and tremendous energies on the fight for Alana to be happy.

- Whatever happens with Alana in her fight career,

she will continue fighting, we will continue fighting,

and eventually, just as the tides of history will turn,

we will look back on this conversation 20 years later

and say, "Wow, I can't believe

that we are trying to deny other human beings

access to sports."

- It's important to see representation,

to see people like you on camera,

out in the world doing the kinds of things you want to do,

because they're symbols in that imagery, like,

that's how we build our hopes and dreams.

And I think we all should do that.

We all should get that chance.

(waves crashing)

- Not really any regrets.

Yeah, I mean,

everything that I would want to change

is outside of my control.

So there's not really any point in me fixating on.

About the best I can do is just kind of be ready

when the call comes, if there is another fight.

I want a place of my own, I want happiness.

But when I was a kid, I think that meant isolation.

And now it doesn't mean that so much.

You know, when I transitioned,

that was kind of my decision to actually join humanity,

to be part of things.

So yeah, once again,

like with anything else, it's a balancing act.

You know, I want my little piece of the pie,

but I want it to be part of the pie,

I don't want to be hoisted off in a corner somewhere.

(gentle instrumental music)

♪ If it were yesterday

♪ I might have sailed away

♪ But the devil had my soul to take ♪

♪ All the damage done

♪ With that loaded gun

♪ To the streets you run away alone in the night ♪

(gentle instrumental music)

♪ No time can take the words I say ♪

♪ Oh, if it were yesterday today ♪

(gentle instrumental music)

- "A child grows among palmettos, unsure of their fit,

unsure of their place,

tucked in the Bible belt, Gamecocks,

tiger show, no fear while growing up queer.

Molten fire hardened

against the Taliban queer palmetto child off to Afghanistan.

Not just a soldier, but now an operator.

But six years and change later

and you find out who you really are.

As your psalm and cream, flowing like a dream,

Athena, Alana will not hide.

You saw the t-shirt, end trans genocide.

Buckle up, let's ride.

(gentle instrumental music)

Oh, bonjour, mademoiselle,

je m'appelle Celine,

I have come from France to steal your dream.

The French woman was tactical, practical,

the reach was locked on, the tone was too good.

The chin was willing, but the legs were buckling.

The girl is getting rocked, the girl is getting knocked.

How did she survive?

How did she survive?

How did she survive being asked, but why?

The second rounds, her swarm fought the barrage,

she wants to take down.

If we can get crown bound, I'll break the fight down.

Slip the punches, got her foothold,

landed on the canvas, BJJ, time to roll.

Alana has landed.

And then you heard a million trans hearts hope.

Rear naked choke, tap out.

That's the show, folks.

Raise that arm high, raise that head high,

show that sly smile with a legend

and all us trans people on your side.

Queer child from the palmettos, you no longer have to hide."

(gentle instrumental music)

(suspenseful music)

(suspenseful music)

(suspenseful music)