When you look at the picture above of Mack Beggs, What do you see?
I know what I see. A wrestler. An athlete. A champion. A boy.
Yet the State of Texas demands that you see a girl. The state demands that Beggs see a girl in the mirror. The high school athletic associations try to force him to be a girl.
Simply because Beggs has “female” on his birth certificate, he has been prevented all wrestling season from competing against the boys. The transgender young man is on the girls team for Trinity High School, just outside of Dallas. Born in a girl’s body, he has transitioned to male throughout his life and — here’s the kicker — is taking testosterone supplements to aid his physical transition.
Beggs’ story was the subject of a powerful profile and follow-up column over the weekend in the Dallas Morning News. The pieces point to the ridiculous rules Texas and its interscholastic organizations force on transgender athletes.
When he won a regional competition last week, all hell broke loose. Carrying an undefeated season into the meet, he won some matches on the mat; Other matches he won by forfeit by female athletes who refused to wrestle him. (Update: A week later, Beggs won the state title in his weight class).
He should have never had to win a match by forfeit, and he should have never been forced to wrestle against girls. As a boy, Beggs should have been allowed to compete against other boys all along. His high school does have a boys wrestling team.
Yet because state law is so adamant about a few letters on a birth certificate, Beggs has wrestled the girls. After all, participation — finding a way to allow athletes to compete — is the utmost importance in high school athletics. Every student-athlete must be allowed to find their way into competition. If this is what the state of Texas demands, then that’s what he’s done.
There is no blame to be placed on Beggs for any of this controversy that has erupted around him. None. Teenagers don’t get to write policy, they have to live by it. Beggs is forced to participate on a girls team because the outdated Texas policy is written by politicians who refuse to accept that people can truly be transgender.
As trans athlete and activist Chris Mosier posted perfectly and succinctly on Twitter:
Backward, oudated laws that force transgender people to live by their gender assigned at birth leave everyone susceptible to problems.
Yet this has become the rallying cry of many political conservatives. “If you’re born a girl, you’re a girl.” They need to keep this one out of this restroom and that one out of that locker room.
This time, it all backfired. The trans boy — whose testosterone regimen is within state policy as it is medicinal and approved by doctors — was forced to wrestle girls and he beat them over and over again. He beat them every single time they were willing to step onto the mat with him this season.
Now some of those same people are crying foul. I’m not going to link to their disgusting commentary here, but I’ve seen various conservative loudmouths call Beggs’ victories unfair and claim he is taking advantage of being born a girl.
No, he’s not. These close-minded transphobes are the very reason he is not competing against other boys.
We’ll be cheering Beggs along as he competes this weekend.
Hopefully the adults in Texas will start addressing the issue of trans athletes as adults. If they do, all of this nonsense about SB6 and forcing people to use incorrect bathrooms may get an injection of adulthood too.
Comments
Go Beggs!
It kinda sucks that the only way to change policy in some places is highlight hypocrisy on the front page . . . again and again and again. It shouldn’t take something this dramatic and this remarkable to enact a common-sense change . . .
By abynum on 02.21.17 6:20am
Here's the main question about this stupidity
Why aren’t you advocating to change science class Cyd? You call it stupid and outdated that a human with a vagina and XX chromosomes are considered FEMALES, and that they should be able to compete as a boy, but if you went to sceince class and said the same thing you’d get an F. The biology book in the school says females have XX chromosomes, so how hard is that to abide by? This proves how STUPID all of this is.
But it’s what that snowflakes in the LGBT mafia want so the rest of us have to forget everything that science has taught us since forever and let them do what they want so they don’t get their feelings hurt. Start there, make the schools change that in biology then come and deal with sports, After all these are STUDENT-athletes right? So the Student part comes first right? So the student part says SHE is a GIRL.
For as fucked up things might get with Trump THANK GOD at least this stupidity is going to come to an end soon. It’s really sad that there’s a whole segment of people (albeit a minoirty) that think that it’s okay to give someone "rights" by taking away the rights of others. And before any of you racists start trying to compare trans anything to being black just don’t, that’s disrespectful, but you don’t care cause nobody else’s dignity or rights matter it’s all.
By fredakers17 on 02.21.17 12:47pm
Answering your Ignorance
Cyd doesn’t need to change Science class (tho Science Textbooks in the US were out-dated when I was in School, and I know it’s only gotten worse), the Science has been ahead of your ignorance for DECADES.
"You call it stupid and outdated that a human with a vagina and XX chromosomes are considered FEMALES"
Sports Scientists since the 60s have recognized that genitalia and chromosomes don’t mean much of anything to how well an individual can compete with others. Further discoveries of XX Males and XY Females, in addition to growing evidence from other fields of Science have long since changed their views on Sex and Gender.
"but if you went to sceince class and said the same thing you’d get an F."
This always strikes me as kind of hilarious. At best you’re stating things you think you remember being taught in School, at worst you are being dishonest, but there is always the possibility you weren’t properly taught to begin with.
"This proves how STUPID all of this is."
I would have to argue that it’s actually Stupid to assert something without actually fact-checking your "memory" or checking to see if what you were taught was accurate.. I’m in my 30s and I remember this stuff.
"it’s what that snowflakes in the LGBT mafia want so the rest of us have to forget everything that science has taught us since forever"
This is blatant conspiracy theory nonsense.. again the Science was already discovering evidence before many of these movements even began or gained any form of socio-political power.
"So the student part says SHE is a GIRL."
Yea, which is the same logic that put this Trans Boy in competition with GIRLS and why he is dominating those Girls. He has more biologically in common with a Boy now.. yet apparently you think it’s fair for those Girls to be forced to compete with a Male.
"trying to compare trans anything to being black just don’t, that’s disrespectful"
You should probably stop trying to talk for PoC, Black Feminists are some of the biggest allies to the Trans Community. Especially since it’s clear you don’t really know anything about these issues.
By Kynjira on 02.21.17 3:09pm
Lies
Stupidity is promoting the lie of transgenderism. The American College of Psychiatry, lead by researchers from Johns Hopkins, have published their findings that transgenderism in children is child abuse.
It is you who does not understand facts.
By madshark on 02.26.17 3:44am
Speaking of lies
You’re telling several. http://www.snopes.com/americas-pediatricians-gender-kids/
By Haut Takerman on 02.26.17 5:44am
Genetic defects does not make new genders (trisomy 21 does not make a ne type of human either). Most people with those genetic defects including trisomy 23 (such as XXY known as Kleinfelders) are born sterile.
By merritt.olsen.9 on 02.27.17 11:37am
You sure get worked up over the existence of transgender people, Fred
Is there something you want to share with us?
Do you have unwanted feelings that you were born in the wrong body, which never go away (and just get worse with time)? I can relate to that, I denied my true self for four decades. I would recommend seeing a therapist with experience in gender issues. Even if you aren’t in deep denial about your gender identity, the therapist could help bring you into the 21st century on gender, and can also help you work on your anger issues.
Or perhaps you just find yourself thinking about transgender women (and/or transgender men) a lot, and those thoughts make you feel aroused but ashamed? There’s nothing wrong with being attracted to trans people, as long as their genitalia isn’t the only reason you are attracted to them. However, you’re not likely to attract a partner by spouting hateful vitriol all the time.
Whatever the reason, perhaps you should start by simply staying away from outsports.com for a while. Self-care is very important, even for internet trolls.
By ekv on 02.24.17 10:36am
Is that all you've got ?
Really that old "repressed feelings" lie that the LGBT community came up with to explain away the most obvious answer, that most peope dont’ believe in their agenda. So rather than accept that theyh’re wrong, they’ve fooled themselves into thinking we want to be them.
Naw I don’t want to stay off Outsports someone has to be the voice of truth in this pit of self delusion n this pit of racist, heterophobic twistedness….plus it’s hilarious to read the lies and self delusions…it’s entertainment
By fredakers17 on 02.24.17 6:49pm
You really are wrong about Biology.
Fred, you should look up Androgen Insensitivity. In Complete Androgen Insensitivity (CAI), you will find out an XY genotype person can develop as a FEMALE, complete with breasts and vagina. In CAI, the cells of a developing person don’t respond to testosterone produced by their testes, and the default body development causes them to become female in form. The testes even migrate to the same location the ovaries of a typical XX genotype female occupy in the abdominal cavity. A CAI individual will not begin menstruation at puberty and will not be able to produce eggs or reproduce. Yet to all outward appearances these XY individuals with CAI appear female. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_androgen_insensitivity_syndrome People may also have Partial Androgen Insensitivity (PAI) which leads to a mix of male and female characteristics developing in the body (intersexuality). This is well documented in medicine.
Similarly in XX Male Syndrome, a gene normally found on the Y chromosome only gets transferred by genetic recombination to the X chromosome of a sperm that fertilizes an egg, leading to an individual that develops as male, but is genotype XX.
Additionally, MRI brain scans show that transpeople have brain structures that resemble those of the other gender than their genetics would indicate. See: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20032-transsexual-differences-caught-on-brain-scan/ My hypothesis is that male to female transgenderism is a kind of PAI, where a female brain develops in a male body. Similarly transgender males are XX but hypothetically have male brain structures in a female body. More study is needed to be sure, but the science is already there to belie simplistic grade school biology that you treat as if it were religious dogma.
That’s not how science works. Science isn’t some fixed set of immutable true ideas that don’t change when new information overturns old knowledge. Science is a process of self correcting investigation into reality. When an old hypothesis or model of reality turns out to be wrong or incomplete, scientists use new evidence to refine the hypothesis or model to be less wrong about reality.
By StevenDK on 02.25.17 4:59pm
Delusional
Unfortunately for you, the American College of Psychiatry, lead by researchers from Johns Hopkins (You’ve heard of them, right?), released the findings of their research. The FACT is, transgenderism in children IS child abuse.
Maybe now they can get the psychiatric help they so desperately need.
By madshark on 02.26.17 3:49am
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just to appease you I went and grabbed my nephews tablet with the official school ciriculum on it and here’s what it says
Yeah jr. high biology is saying the same thing it always has. I’m not really sure what communities people like you grow up in that they teach all this other bs but I’d like to know? I went to Booker T Washington High School in Norfolk VA, and yeah there were and still are 2 sexes male and female…
Also there is no logic of putting a transboy in competition with Girls. If you have to take ANYTHING that isn’t naturally produced by you then that should be considered a performance enhancing drug, you don’t get to switch genders because of it. lol
Oh and I speak for BLACK PEOPLE. Only racists liberals use terms like "POC". And Black Feminist is an oxymoron, they have far more in common with white issues than black, because we don’t claim them. Let either one of them a Transgender woman or a black feminist walk into any church in any black neighborhood on Sunday around noon and watch how much agreement they get. And I dare that transgender to walk into the bathroom of it’s choice, it ain’t gonna come out how you think. The only person that doesn’t know anything about any issues is clearly you. Need proof, Houston. A city that twice elected a Lesbian mayor drew the line at the Transgender stupidity and overwhelmingly said NOPE not in our community. This was after all the "polls" said H.E.R.O. would pass with ease.
I get it you live by the power of positive attraction, if you think it , then it will come to you…sorry buddy this is the real world and in the real world you can’t wake up one day and decide to be whatever you want to be and expect everyone else to just let you have your way and change the entire way they think. Keep telling yourself that these are really "boys" and "girls" you’re going to keep getting your feelings hurt when 67% of your community come back and say no to anything with the words transgender in it it (that’s the exact margin that Houston rejected HERO by the way). Out of every 378 LGBT issues ever put onto public ballots only 3 have ever passed, EVER. That should tell you something. The world doesn’t want to support LGBT issues. Every "win" or "progress" has come via some politician or liberal judge deciding which way society should go. And I’ll give you gay marriage, for the most part it doesn’t affect me at all, except when you get these militant SJW like Cyd who intentionally try to force others into agreeing with their beliefs by manipulating the courts but that’s another discussion, BUT not Transgender anything it won’t fly sorry…..
By fredakers17 on 02.21.17 6:38pm
Keep pitching your tantrum while the world moves on and leaves you behind.
You sound like the racists in the 60’s who fashioned themselves as experts on black people and just like them, you fashion yourself an expert on people you know NOTHING about and have contempt for. And just like them, you will continue to rant and rave and pitch fits and pout while the world becomes more and more understanding and accepting of transgender people. And one day in the not too distant future, kids will look back at your little tantrum here and see "Seh-grah-gay-shun t’daaay, Seh-grah-gay-shun t’marrah, Seh-grah-gay-shun fah-EVAH!" And they will feel shame and pity for you like we feel shame and pity for the loud mouthed racists in our past. And JUST like them, you can’t imagine that things will ever change or that there’s a possibility that I’m right. But they will and I am.
Ta!
By TampaZeke on 02.22.17 5:42am
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What world do you live in? I live in Earth 612 and here, trangender stupidity is losing ground faster than the California coast line. Let’s say Target is still losing money from it’s stupidity, Texas told the NBA and NFL to go shove it, NC still hasn’t pulled back HB2 and doesn’t seem like it will even with a Democrat as the Governor. Houston, which is as LGB friendly as anywhere, just OVERWHELMINGLY voted no on H.E.R.O. 20 states were prepared to sue the US Gov’t over it’s brain fart. American’s were so worried about the Democrats staying in power and forcing this thru that we elected DONALD FUCKING TRUMP.
But yeah, the world is becoming more accepting over transgender issues everyday, that’s why 3rd wave feminists and christian groups are banning together to fight this. Black churches and white feminists are walking hand in hand to keep transgender stupidity from spreading, but sure the country is becoming more accepting.
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bet you still have a BetaMax player and laser discs don’t you ??
By fredakers17 on 02.22.17 9:29am