The transgender wrestler who won the Texas state girls' championship but identifies as a boy is hoping to take down a proposed “bathroom bill” in his home state.
Mack Beggs posted a YouTube video urging the Texas legislature not to pass a bill that would prohibit transgender people from using the bathroom corresponding to the gender that they identify with.
In the video Beggs argues that transgender athletes are not cheating and shouldn’t be discriminated against. “They’re not choosing. We belong,” Beggs says. “Transgender people are not to be feared. We deserve the same rights and protections as everyone else. If you’re a legislator thinking of passing a bill that denies who we are and makes people fear us, stop. We exist and so do our rights.”
Beggs goes on to argue that any bill passed against transgender people disparages the entire LGBTQ community.
Beggs’ gender has been the center of a controversy in Texas high school athletics. He won a lawsuit leveled against him by a female competitor who claimed he had an unfair advantage. He’s also endured some opponents refusing to wrestle him.
In the wake of Beggs’ win at the state meet, Texas lawmakers tried and failed to pass a bill that would have disqualified transgender athletes from competition.
