When Mack Beggs pinned down his final opponent in the Texas state wrestling championship, the crowd erupted.
However, among the loud applause, traces of boos and jeers were heard.
“They just want to automatically call me a cheater,” Beggs said in an interview with ESPN.
The problem is, Beggs is not a cheater. He is transgender.
Beggs, born a female, said he spent most of his childhood questioning his own identity. He said once he hit adolescence, his thoughts turned dark. He cut himself and considered suicide before his mother put him in a hospital. Once he reached eighth grade, Beggs began the medical transition into a man.
There was one area of Beggs’ life that he never questioned: wrestling.
During his junior year of high school, he went a perfect 52-0 before taking the state championship.
Beggs, despite identifying as a male and taking small doses of testosterone, was required by state law to compete in the women’s division. The Texas law mandates an athlete will be classified by the gender on his or her birth certificate when it comes to participating in athletics.
Beggs’ story is the first of many transgender issues that blur the lines between female and male sports. The Texas law is just one example of poor handling of the situation.
Beggs told ESPN that if it were up to him, he would wrestle on the men’s team. Many who argue against Beggs say that taking the testosterone gives him an unfair advantage against females who most likely have lower levels in their bodies. However, Beggs said that he had a testosterone blocker implanted in his arm, pausing the flow of the chemical to his body so he can maintain a level consistent with the league policy.
Beggs, like many other transgender athletes, finds himself in a strange limbo. He will face opposition no matter where he turns.
On one hand, people will refuse to let him compete against other men because there is still the widely-held belief that sex determines gender, no matter what someone identifies as. In this situation, Beggs would be forced to compete against females and would continue to dominate in a field where he feels he does not belong.
However, there will also be those who refuse to let him compete against women because his body has indeed changed. Beggs competes in the 110-pound weight class, and did not suffer a single loss.
It’s clear that if Beggs wishes to continue to wrestle, he should be given the chance to prove himself. He told ESPN he wants nothing more than the chance to compete among other athletes of his gender. With the current climate in Texas, it looks like that possibility is still a long way off.
On the other side of the argument, there is the question of male athletes transitioning and competing among women. On the surface, this seems highly questionable. As seen in the case of Beggs, a male athlete does possess an advantage, even if that male used to be female. Can the same be said for the opposite?
Transgender issues in athletics will most likely become more of a mainstream debate in the near future. With athletes already training for the 2020 summer Olympics, the world might finally learn where transgender athletes fit in sports.
Brandon Hill can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brandonmtnhill