Why Should a Transgender Boy Be Able to Win a Girls’ State Wrestling Title?

Mack Beggs, 17, won the Class 6A girls state wrestling championship in Texas this weekend. Beggs is on hormones to transition from a female to a male — and many people say this individual has an unfair strength advantage due to the testosterone she/he is now taking.

“I just witnessed my sport change,” a longtime Texas wrestling coach told The Washington Post minutes after the win. Beggs definitively beat Morton Ranch High School’s Chelsea Sanchez by a score of 12-2.

“She is taking something that gives her an unfair advantage,” said one parent.

The University Interscholastic League (UIL), which oversees sports in Texas public schools, ordered Beggs to continue competing in the girls’ division despite an uproar earlier this month in a Travis County district court over the testosterone Beggs is taking. The UIL goes by gender on birth certificate to determine whether students will wrestle against boys or girls.

Beggs, a junior at Euless Trinity High School in Euless, Texas, has been taking the male hormone since October 2015, the Dallas Morning News reported.

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“She’s standing there holding her head high like she’s the winner,” Patti Overstreet, the mother of a wrestler in the boys’ division, told The Post after Beggs’ win. “She’s not winning. She’s cheating. It’s not equal. It’s never going to be equal.”

Beggs identifies as male and wants to wrestle boys — but state athletic rules prohibit the three-time state qualifier from doing so. Policy says student athletes must compete as the gender listed on their birth certificates, the Morning News reported.

Another complication: Transitioning from one gender to another is considered valid “medically” in Texas. While the Texas Education Code and University Interscholastic League rules prohibit steroid use, the Morning News said the code has a “safe harbor” provision allowing steroids if “dispensed, prescribed, delivered and administered by a medical practitioner for a valid medical purpose.”

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Three high school students in North Shore, Massachusetts, weighed in on the topic. All are involved in high school sports — though none of them wrestles.

“I think it’s unfair to the girls, because wrestling is all about strength,” a senior who plays lacrosse told LifeZette. “Just because he wants to wrestle — should he? I compare it to athletes who are taking drugs that give an advantage. That’s why those are ‘banned’ substances.”

Another student, a junior who plays football, said, “It’s like this student wants it all — to be transgender, and to wrestle. Maybe while you are transitioning, make that your choice, at least until some of these league issues are settled — and bow out of wrestling girls who you are obviously stronger than.”

Another student, a female senior who plays field hockey, felt compassion for Beggs. “The rules haven’t caught up to the times,” she said. “Transgender people are here to stay — shouldn’t we make sure the rules of athletics accommodate them? Are they just supposed to miss out on their high school career because they are trans?”

A Texas wrestling parent and attorney, Jim Baudhuin, filed a lawsuit against the UIL, asking it to suspend Beggs for the testosterone use, which he said places other athletes under “imminent threat of bodily harm,” the Morning News reported.

Baudhuin’s daughter, a wrestler for another high school, isn’t in Beggs’ weight class. He said the lawsuit wasn’t about transgender issues but fairness. “I respect that completely, and I think the coaches do,” he said. “All we’re saying is she is taking something that gives her an unfair advantage. It’s documented. It’s universal that [the steroids provide] an unfair advantage.”

Beggs took to Facebook on Sunday, saying, “We want to wrestle each other. I feel so sick and disgusted by the discrimination not by the kids, [but by] the PARENTS AND COACHES. These kids don’t care who you put in front of them to wrestle. We just want to WRESTLE. THEY are taking that away from me and from the people I’m competing with. SHARE SO WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE FOR THIS SPORT AND DISCRIMINATION!”

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One Facebook commenter disagreed, saying — in all lowercase letters, “I find this shameful. not even from a trans point of view. a true competitor wouldn’t have entered a contest against a bunch of high school girls. there are different ways to bring light to transgender issues. this wasn’t it.”

Beggs’ grandmother and guardian is angry. “Today was not about their students winning,” Nancy Beggs told the Morning News. “Today was about bias, hatred and ignorance.”

Despite criticism of the policy, UIL executives don’t envision a change. Many still feel that hormones represent an unfair strength advantage that is potentially disqualifying.

“It’s a dominant American value: fairness, the equality of the pursuit of something,” a Texas wrestling coach who asked to remain anonymous, told the Post. “There’s no doubt that coaches are troubled by this; kids are troubled by it.”