A transgender wrestler won the girls’ state wrestling title in Texas for the second year in a row—and the crowd responded with a chorus of boos.
Mack Beggs was born a woman, but began transitioning from female to male a few years ago. But despite Beggs’ new gender and use of testosterone, the wrestler continues to wrestle as a female.
Beggs attracted controversy last year, after a parent of a female competitor filed a suit to stop Beggs from wrestling as a girl. Because of a state athletic policy, high school student-athletes must compete as the gender that’s on their birth certificate.
In the past, Beggs has publicly said he would love to wrestle boys—and would do so, if not for the state athletic policy. UIL has said publicly they never received an official request from Beggs asking to wrestle boys instead of girls.
Many parents have been outraged to see their daughters wrestling someone who, effectively, has the strength of a young man. And, based on the boos from the crowd, they’re not the only one.
Beggs, however, shrugged off the criticism, saying, “I don’t care, I gave my all in that match.”
“You put me in front of anybody and I’ll wrestle them,” Beggs said. “Each time I read comments, they all say the same thing about steroids. It all comes down to technique and who has the most heart.”
