"This past Friday, Mack Beggs, an undefeated high school wrestler from Texas, competed at the girls’ state tournament in suburban Houston. But unlike the rest of the teen’s female competitors, Beggs, 17, is a boy. For more than a year, the teen, who was born a girl, has been transitioning from female to male with the help of testosterone therapy. Beggs’s participation — and dominance — in the girls’ league has spurred consternation among some in the Dallas region, including a lawsuit filed by an unhappy parent, who argued that if Beggs identifies as a boy he should have to wrestle other boys. And Beggs would gladly do so, except he can't.
That’s because last year, some 95 percent of Texas superintendents voted in favor of an amendment to the constitution of the University Interscholastic League, the state’s governing body for public school athletics, that requires student athletes to compete as the gender listed on their birth certificate, the Dallas Morning News reported at the time. When the referendum ballot was approved (586-32, with 2 non-responses), critics called it “horrible policy” that would discriminate against transgender athletes who were unable to afford the complicated maneuvering that goes into legally changing one’s birth certificate through the state." (From the Washington Post)
If we are a society hell bent on making gender distinctions, Beggs should be wrestling with the boys largely due to the fact that he has been taking male hormones and steroids, which if you are wondering, by the "Texas Education Code and UIL rules, they allow for the use of steroids if 'dispensed, prescribed, delivered and administered by a medical practitioner for a valid medical purpose,'" which according to Texas rule, he is. To me, this allows Beggs a significant advantage over his female competitors.
A few competitors did in fact drop out of their matches with Beggs, according to them, because they feared undue injury due to his potential strength matched up against their own. Beggs wrestles in the 110 pound class, where his record is 52-0. Whether their actual reason was true or not, the very reason girls don't wrestle the boys is because according to these rules out there the bodies and strength levels are different. If we're going to say it's okay for Beggs to wrestle female wrestlers, then get rid of the rule that boys must wrestle boys and girls must wrestle girls because going forward, there would be no point to making any sort of distinction.
This case has probably done the absolute opposite of what lawmakers intended because instead of society agreeing and saying Beggs should be forced to wrestle with the girls, most are saying quite the opposite. The irony is, further up the ladder, Under NCAA rules, athletes transitioning from female to male ARE allowed to compete on men’s teams while taking testosterone, but can’t compete on women’s teams.
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