Nina Ansaroff is an American UFC fighter, who is currently ranked #5 in the UFC women’s strawweight rankings. The Florida native started training in MMA in 2009 and made her professional debut the next year.
She is openly gay and is in fact engaged to Amanda Nunes, her fellow UFC teammate. Last year, Nunes announced that both women are entirely open to fighting one another in the ring. In fact, they’re already planning it out, though it won’t happen until they both score a belt and go toe-to-toe in a Super fight at 125.
Orlando Cruz
Orlando Cruz is a professional Puerto Rican boxer, the first openly gay boxer, to be exact. He came out in 2012, telling the world he is a “proud gay man.” He dedicated a 2016 match to the victims of the Pulse nightclub tragedy, where he donned rainbow shorts.
Cruise has been very open in discussing his experiences of growing up gay, and coming out, both to his family and the world. In the summer of 2018, he was honored at the Chicago Pride Parade as Grand Marshall.
Effy
Effy Gibbes is the first openly sober LGBTQ representative on the list so far. Effy brings a bit of punk rock mixed with fabulousness to the ring – typically while wearing a pair of fishnets and something in bright pink. “I’m coming out in this glitzy outfit- I’ve got this glamorous studded jacket; I’ve got fishnets on. I’m acting a little feminine. But my straight-up style in the ring is submission based and brawling,”
Effy said in a recent interview with into more. He’s been extremely entertaining and badass in the ring, with his secret weapon being all of the trash-talk before a beat down.
Liz Carmouche
Lil Carmouche was one half of a match that made UFC history, as being the first in the league's history to be fought by two openly gay competitors. She’s actually made history a few times during her professional career, including the tine she went toe-to-toe with Ronda Rousey for the bantamweight championship.
When she was a part of the UFC, she was last ranked as #4 in the flyweight rankings. The USMC veteran was cut from the organization in 2019 when she was actually in the midst of making an appearance during fight week.
Sharice Davids
Sharice Davids is an attorney and politician Who is currently serving in the House of Representatives for Kansas. But before she got into politics, she worked as an MMA fighter and even tried out for The Ultimate Fighter. Unfortunately, she didn’t make it, but perhaps that’s because she had other things to do!
Davids is now the first openly gay person elected to the US Congress from the state of Kansas, as well as the first LGBTQA Native American in Congress.