Transgender Wrestler Mack Beggs to Defend Texas State Wrestling Title

High school wrestler Mack Beggs, who is transgender and transitioning from female to male, will attempt to defend his Texas state title in 2018.

Jim Vertuno of the Associated Press (h/t Chicago Tribune) reported the news Thursday, noting Beggs competes in the Class 6A 110-pound girls' division because "Texas public high schools require athletes to compete under the gender on their birth certificate."

Beggs, who attends Euless Trinity High School near Dallas, starts the state tournament Friday.

According to Vertuno, a lawsuit was filed against the University Interscholastic League, which oversees athletic competition in Texas, last year in an effort to stop him from competing. "It was his steroid therapy treatments while wrestling girls that stirred a fierce debate about competitive fairness and transgender rights last season," Vertuno wrote.

Vertuno explained Beggs, who is 32-0 this season and went 56-0 last season, can still take testosterone and compete. Texas laws ban performance-enhancing drug use for high school athletes, but there is a "safe harbor" exception if they are taken for medical purposes.

Efforts from lawmakers that would have stopped him from competing passed in the Senate but stalled in the Texas House, and there won't be a reconvening until after Beggs' high school wrestling career is done.

"He has so much respect for all the girls he wrestles," Beggs' mother, Angela McNew, told Vertuno. "People think Mack has been beating up on girls ... The girls he wrestles with, they are tough. It has more to do with skill and discipline than strength."

According to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News, Beggs is considering a college scholarship and will have the opportunity to wrestle in the men's division at the next level should he choose.

He is already classified as male in the eyes of the NCAA, USA Wrestling and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency because of his testosterone levels.