Video: Trans Boy Mack Beggs Wins Texas Female Wrastlin’ Championship. Texas Reacts Accordingly.
WATCH: in a dramatic finish, transgender wrestler Mack Beggs rolls out of a possible pinfall to avoid defeat and win state. Met with boos from the crowd. @wfaa pic.twitter.com/72xRpzsQGN
— Matt Howerton (@HowertonNews) February 24, 2018
NPR – The Texas state wrestling championships aren’t usually national news. But they made headlines this weekend when a 17-year-old transgender boy — barred by state rules from competing in the boys’ league — won his weight class, against girls.
Mack Beggs, the teenage boy in question, hasn’t sought the spotlight. By all accounts he just wants to wrestle.
But media attention found him anyway. In part, that’s because some parents of female wrestlers have vocally objected to the fact that Beggs, who has been taking testosterone as part of his gender transition, is wrestling girls. One parent even filed a lawsuit against the league that organizes public school sports
The controversy has been heightened because his victory arrived on the heels of President Trump’s decision to rescind Obama administration guidelines on trans students’ rights in school.
Asa Merritt, a reporter in West Texas, spoke to NPR’s Michel Martin about the controversy, and also covered the championship for our Newscast division.
He says Beggs began transitioning about a year and a half ago.
“He wants to compete against boys,” Merritt says. But under Texas rules, boys can’t compete against girls, and students must compete as the gender marked on their birth certificate. That meant if Beggs wanted to wrestle, he had to do it in the girls’ league.
I wish those who are tweeting vile things about Mack Beggs could spend time with him. Here’s a snippet from our Saturday interview after his final HS match and 2nd state title. pic.twitter.com/X9y6qh6Bvl
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) February 27, 2018
Classy bizness from the understanding folks that booed Mack winning.
For clarification purposes, Mack is transitioning Female to Male and he’s jacked and not built like a female due to transition but rules are rules, and that means Mack gets to clean up in the female division.
If the rule demands you wrestle in the division on your BC then all the people booing can lick the shit out of my onesie. Mack is following the rules and getting strapped for it by some backwoods doorknobs that don’t understand how trans works.
He wants to be and is a male, and due to Texas wrestling rules, he’s following the rules to a T.
Fair? Who fucking cares. The Trans community has a tickle trunk full of unfair so suck it up buttercup. Mack, keep pinning ladies like it’s your job.
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Dean Blundell is a Canadian radio personality. Best known as a longtime morning host on CFNY-FM (The Edge) in Toronto, Ontario. In 2015 he was named the new morning host on sports radio station CJCL (Sportsnet 590 The Fan). Dean started his career in radio in 2001 and for nearly 20 years been entertaining the radio audience. Dean’s newest venture is the launch of his site and podcast which is gaining tremendous momentum across North America.