Mack Beggs, the 17-year-old transgender athlete who was jeered by some spectators after winning the Texas girls’ wrestling title last weekend, has said policymakers should change the law to allow him to compete against boys.
Beggs, who identifies as male and is transitioning from female to male, drew the ire of some, who believed his testosterone supplements make him too strong to compete against girls; he went undefeated for the entire season. Beggs’ family had attempted to get permission to allow him to compete in the boys’ division, challenging a state law that requires athletes in public schools to compete against the gender listed on their birth certificates.
Beggs told ESPN’s Outside the Lines on Wednesday: “[Texas policymakers] should change the laws and then watch me wrestle the boys. Because I’m a guy. It just makes more sense.”
Beggs said he has been called a “faggot” and “it” by people who consider him a cheat.
“I just heard the boos, but I heard more cheering,” Beggs said. “Honestly, I was like, ‘You know what? Boo all you want, because you’re just hating. You hating ain’t going to get me and you nowhere, and I’m just going to keep on doing what I’ve got to do.’ That’s why I’ve always had that mentality. If you’re going to be negative, you know, whatever, that’s not going to faze me.”
Beggs added that his critics did not see the amount of training he put in to achieve his perfect record. “I mean, I’ve been winning before when I didn’t have testosterone, but now that, you know, I’m actually winning, people want to go crazy,” he said.
“Like that kind of makes me feel like they don’t care about my training or the work that I put in. Because I’ve been to [the state championship] twice. And it’s not like I’m just doing this because I want to like call myself a boy and just dominate all these girls. What do I get out of that? I don’t get anything out of that.”
Asked to give advice to others who may find themselves in a similar position, Beggs was eloquent.
“Don’t give up,” he said. “Because as soon as you feel like you’re going to give up, you’ve already lost. You just have to stay strong. There’s going to be sucky days. There is going to be sucky days, believe me ... There’s always going to be another day. There’s always going to be another week. You’ve just got to keep on rolling.”
