In just a few days, Liz Carmouche will become the first openly gay fighter to participate in a UFC fight. The bout marks a series of firsts, as it will also be the first female Ultimate Fighting Championship title fight, with Carmouche and opponent Ronda Rousey being the first female headliners in UFC history.
In just a few days, Liz Carmouche will become the first openly gay fighter to participate in a UFC fight. The bout marks a series of firsts, as it will also be the first female Ultimate Fighting Championship title fight, with Carmouche and opponent Ronda Rousey being the first female headliners in UFC history.
A former marine, Carmouche is no stranger to intense physical and mental toughness. She is an Iraqi War veteran, who attributes her will and drive mainly to her mom’s “can- attitude.” She says she used it as inspiration and to drive success during her time in the military. “Even if you feel like you’ve reached a point and you can’t exceed it, you have to push yourself because your life and the lives of others depend on it,” Carmouche says.
Having completed her service in 2009, three years before Obama’s appeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” Carmouche describes her experience as a gay servicewoman as “very difficult.” “I constantly had to look over my shoulder, always wondering if somebody was going to try and out me,” she says. While the fighter wasn’t able to personally experience being out in the military, she says she’s pleased to see pictures and videos of out marines coming home from service and being free to embrace their partners in public. “It’s a huge change,” she says. “It’s amazing.”
Still, Carmouche remains grateful for her personal experience, despite feeling “uncomfortable being in open relationships” during her time in the military. “I feel like those were hurdles in my life that I experienced that made me stronger, and it made it [possible] for me to come out the way I have today,” she says that if she hadn’t had those struggles she wouldn’t, “be such a loud voice like I am now.”
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