전설적 복싱 프로모터 프랭크 말로니가 61세의 나이에도 불구하고 성전환 수술을 했다고 외신이 보도했다.
복싱 세계에서 25년이나 종사했고 세계챔피언들도 배출해낸 남자가 늦은 나이에 성전환 수술을 하고 이름을 “켈리”로 바꾸어 세계를 놀라게 했다.
“어렸을 적부터 잘못된 몸에서 태어났다는 것을 알고 있었다. 그때부터 나는 정신적으로 분열된 상태였다. 남자로 계속 살았다면 나는 지금쯤 죽었을 것이다”라고 한 외신과의 인터뷰에서 밝혔다.
말로니는 “예전에는 드레스차림으로 링에 설 수 없다고 생각했지만 지금은 여성으로서도 복싱을 잘 할 수 있다는 것을 보여주고 싶다”라고 덧붙였다.
그는 또 “사회가 조금 더 개방적으로 변하면 좋을 것 같다”라는 말로 인터뷰를 마무리 지었다.
(코리아헤럴드 조한나 인턴기자 hnncho@heraldcorp.com)
(서진 출처: 유투브캡쳐)
<관련 영문 기사>
Ex-boxing promoter Maloney having sex change
Former boxing promoter Frank Maloney is undergoing a sex change, according to a newspaper interview published Sunday.
The 61-year-old Maloney, who guided Lennox Lewis to the world heavyweight title in the 1990s, is now living as a woman by the name of Kellie, Britain‘s Sunday Mirror reported.
The twice-married Maloney ended an illustrious career last October and told the paper about undergoing hormone treatment for two years in preparation for a sex change operation.
"I was born in the wrong body and I have always known I was a woman,’‘ Maloney was quoted as saying by the Mirror. "I can’t keep living in the shadows. That is why I am doing what I am today. Living with the burden any longer would have killed me."
"What was wrong at birth is now being medically corrected. I have a female brain. I knew I was different from the minute I could compare myself to other children. I wasn‘t in the right body. I was jealous of girls.’’
Maloney said a boxing career helped bring in enough money to walk away from the sport and live a new life as a woman.
"It was something that I was determined to suppress and keep wrapped up because I didn‘t want to be seen different,’‘ Maloney said.
"(Boxing) took up all of my time. It gave me a complete focus. It was something I thought I had to be successful in because I thought if I failed in that, where do I go?’‘ (AP)
