Alana McLaughlin has brutally hit out at “right-wing politicians” like Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for using transgender kids as a “scapegoat.”
The US state of Texas made headlines last month after Abbott signed a bill that banned trans girls from taking part in female sports at schools.
The bill will take effect from 18th January 2022 and Texas becomes the latest state to pass a controversial ban on trans children from competing in female sports.
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Idaho Governor Brad Little passed similar legislation through his state, which has been met with a challenge from a federal court.
West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Montana, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas have all followed in the footsteps of Idaho’s bill, while South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has used an executive order.
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McLaughlin became only the second trans MMA fighter -- after Fallon Fox -- to compete in a professional MMA fight.
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The 38-year-old American, who was born in South Carolina and transitioned from male to female, slammed the controversial Texas bill and claimed trans kids “deserve equal access to sports.”
McLaughlin wrote for The Guardian: “The intentions of right-wing politicians like Abbott and DeSantis are clear.
“They are using transgender children as scapegoat and compromising their health and safety to score political points with their party and their constituents.
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“Trans kids deserve equal access to sports. Trans people deserve equal access to public life.
“We deserve love and safety and inclusion, and make no mistake: we will win this fight, and history will not remember dinosaurs like Abbott and DeSantis kindly.”
McLaughlin defeated Celine Provost in the second round of her MMA debut fight at Combate Global: Perez vs Roa in September.
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However, the South Carolina-born fighter’s victory was marred with controversy over her participation at the MMA event.
McLaughlin broke her silence after her victory over Provost and revealed that she had received “nasty messages calling me a cheater.”
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The trans MMA fighter accused the “political right” of seeing transgender people as an “easy target.”
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McLaughlin argued that there is no evidence of “widespread transgender dominance” in any sport, saying that trans are “underrepresented in sports.”
She explained: “This exclusionary and inflammatory rhetoric should be unacceptable in the halls of government and the pages of public media, but the political right perceives transgender people as an easy target.
“The fact is that we are statistically underrepresented in sports. There is no widespread transgender dominance in any sport anywhere in the world.”
Featured Image Credit: Alana McLaughlin's Instagram/PATopics: MMA