The debate around the inclusion of trans women athletes into cis women’s sporting categories has raged strong for several years. The various sports governing bodies around the world are trying their best to come up with workable solutions that demonstrate compassion, integrity and fairness to all athletes. Empirical data on the strength of a trans women compared to a cis-man or woman, however, is thin on the ground, and it may be many years until an informed best practice for all athletes is introduced. The lack of knowledge about trans women athletes and any competitive advantage in sports hasn’t stopped countless uninformed high-profile bigots (step forward J K Rowling, Donald Trump and Elon Musk) from ranting on about the issue, gleefully spreading their thinly disguised transphobia in the culture war of the moment. It’s a complex debate. There are several sports where men and women can compete equally – sailing, equestrian, motor bike racing, ice skating, surfing, darts and so on, so more open categories in sport would help. Combat and strength sports are different, as are sports such as swimming where hand and foot size affect performance, so there can’t be blanket rules. Another consideration is that many individual sports stars have genetic advantages, as do different races – no-one expects them to be penalised or excluded from sports. Every human is different, of course, so again there can’t be a one-size-fits-all rule for trans women athletes. Fairness needs to be the prime consideration, possibly with an individual assessment of each athlete – with the mindset that sometimes a trans woman competitor will win a competition.
One group we rarely hear from in the debate is the female trans sports people themselves. Unfightable, an intimate profile of female trans MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin, directed by Marc Perez, seeks to address this. We follow Portland-based, late thirties Alana for a couple years as she prepares for her first fight against a cis-woman MMA fighter.
As a child growing up in South Carolina, McLaughlin had her bedroom door and curtains removed by her religious zealot parents to dissuade her from her joy of crossdressing. Regularly raped by a neighbour’s son and bullied extensively at school led her to find solace in athletics. A military career with active service in the US Military Special Forces followed, and although she shone in the military, suicidal thoughts beckoned, and eventually the PTSD of both active service and her traumatic childhood caught up with her. A move to Portland, Oregon, a journey into activism and her subsequent transition to a woman eased some of the pain and she has entered a better place. McLaughlin has also been training as MMA fighter for the past few years and is ready for her first televised fight. Combate Global, a MMA promotions company – live fights, TV shows and online content – are keen to support her but she’s finding it hard to find a cis-woman MMA fighter prepared to fight her, as well as a gym prepared to support her training, and has to deal with personal demons on top of all that.
Perez follows McLaughlin as she tirelessly overcomes hurdle after hurdle to forge her path as a MMA fighter. He combines fly-on-the-wall footage of McLaughlin with interviews with both her, her friends and supporters (including veteran trans-woman MMA fighter Fallon Fox) as well as her detractors. What emerges is a heartfelt, thought-provoking study of the challenges faced by trans-women sports people just to perform their sport, let alone compete professionally. McLaughlin is highly intelligent, very fluent, good looking and extremely likeable, so she makes for easy viewing. The film is an interesting analysis of how culture wars shape people’s individual lives – whether around gender, sexuality or race. The viewer is left to draw their own conclusions on how McLaughlin should advance her MMA career. Hopefully the current wave of transphobia will soon recede and sports science and knowledge will improve quickly so that trans women can compete in sports as safely and fairly as possible.
‘Unfightable’ opened in New York Friday, September 13 and on Los Angeles Friday, September 20; Streaming on Fuse and ViX this October
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