Fallon Fox, transgender MMA fighter: Passing is everything

Fallon Fox, the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter who came out transgender in March, said in a GQ profile that passing is everything.

The 5-page story follows Fox, 37, as she prepares to fight Ashlee Evans-Smith.

Along the way, we learn that Fox wasn't always sure she wasn't a boy.

"There was no time to think about that back in East Toledo, Ohio, in a house where fearing the Lord was a full-time job," GQ wrote.

As early as 5 or 6, Fox experimented with girls' clothing.

"I stood in front of the mirror, and I knew it was right," she said. "But it also meant I was damned. I mean, that seemed totally logical to me. You feel that way and you think you've got the Devil in you, just like they say."

"Where I came from, it was more shocking to be an atheist than to be transgender," Fox said.

In 2006, Fox boarded a plane to Thailand to undergo sex reassignment surgery. She went alone.

"Passing becomes everything, everything," Fox said. "Every time you go into a Starbucks and there's nothing in someone's eyes, it feels great."