UFC fighter Molly McCann said it was MMA that gave her the courage to be herself.
The 32-year-old Scouser discussed the journey she’s been on to discover and embrace her sexuality with the BBC as part of LGBT+ History Month which occurs annually in February.
Speaking on BBC’s The LGBT Sport Podcast, ‘Meatball Molly’, who grew up in Norris Green, said: “Growing up, (sexuality) was always put on me because of the sport I did - playing football and fighting. I just never thought it was me, it didn’t sit with me and I was never comfortable with it.
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“I wasn’t naturally attracted to women but it wasn’t until I was 25 when I got into my first relationship with a girl that I realised I was. It was MMA and Jiu Jitsu that gave me the courage to be who I am and not be scared of what other people think.
“I grew up as a tom-boy and people constantly put their opinions on me and what I was about. Growing up for anyone isn’t easy but growing up as someone who is confused and doesn’t understand where they are and what is normal and what isn’t.
“It was still drilled into me, from kids just being kids, that it (being gay) was seen as dirty. When I was a kid the stigma of being gay, it just wasn’t cool. The more I did MMA and Jiu Jitsu, where there is a philosophy of we are all one, the second I crossed that mat we were all equal - no matter religion, race or sexual orientation."
All of what the MMA legend spoke about is featured in her first-ever children’s book, Be True To You. The illustrated book documents Molly’s coming-out story and “draws the comparisons between constantly feeling different and not always fitting in the crowd and wondering why? It goes on to conclude how sport was my aid and my safe space to come out.”
She added: “I was in London speaking with Disney, ESPN, JOE, and BT Sport and I was talking about this kind of thing. It’s strange that I’m not talking about being Meatball Molly or having alcoholic parents, I’m talking about probably the biggest fight of my life which no one has really known about because I haven’t had to speak about it.”
The Liverpudlian fighter previously shared the trauma of holding her fiancee’s hand in public. She said she would still get looks and abuse when out and about in public.
Molly said: “I struggle with being gay still. It's not nice for me to sometimes walk down the street and I'll get abuse. It's not really in the city that I am from but if you go somewhere and I hold my girlfriend's hand, the looks that you can get and the abuse you can get it's still quite traumatic, to be honest.
"It hurts, I don't sit on it or dwell on it, you just get on with it because I am who I am so I'm not going to feel bad about that anymore but I just thought I have to keep reliving this moment and keep on, not forcing it upon people, but when questioned about it, I need to be honest and true.
"If people can see that even someone like myself would still struggle but I am still trying to fight the good fight and it might help a different kind of community, not the community I am from but the queer community I represent.
"These are all things you probably never knew - how deep that I am or anything because you meet Meatball, not Molly McCann. So, it's nice people have been able to understand she's actually not just a mad woman who heckles at the boxing fights and all that kind of thing, but I'm like an onion. There are lots of layers to me.”
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