Mack Begg, a transgender male, won the 110 pound girl's State Championship- and is causing outrage. Many claim that Mack was given an unfair advantage due to the testosterone in his system. The parents of a fellow wrestler in a Dallas- area high school have filed a lawsuit trying to block Beggs' from competing, claiming that his "increased strength poses a threat to competitors."Beggs' tried to compete for the Boy's State title- but Texas law doesn't allow it. Texas law states that athletes must compete according to their birth gender. According to transathlete.com , Texas is 1 out of 7 U.S. states with discriminatory laws toward transgender athletes. Legally, Mack is abiding by laws that need to be revised, "so that guys like Mack can wrestle with their peers, which would be on the boys team", said Lou Weaver the head of the LGBT rights group Equality Texas.
People don't want Mack to compete with the boy's wrestling team, and are angry when he competes under the only title he's allowed to. People's personal beliefs are pinning transgender kids into a corner where it's impossible for them to win. Not only on this issue, but on several others as well. Transgender kids have to deal with so much dealing with basic rights from going to the bathroom to going to prom. And recently Trump withdrew federal protection for transgender students. I don't know what terrible apocalyptic-tragedy conservatives think is going to happen if we change laws to protect and embrace transgender kids, but i'm confident that life will go on exactly as before.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/26/transgender-teenage-wrestler-mack-beggs-wins-texas-girls-title
I totally understand where you're coming from and think, over the course of history, people have been and will continue to be judged for their differences.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see if anything changes in the rules that will allow him to compete with the boys in the up coming years. It does seem like he would have an advantage over the girls with the testosterone treatments.
ReplyDelete