Transgender teen wins regional wrestling title despite attempt to ban him from competing

[TexasTowelie]

ALLEN -- The winning wrestler pulled a tearful runner-up next to him on the victory stand, and they exchanged a hug after a match that never took place.

Mack Beggs, a transgender 17-year-old at Euless Trinity, won the girls 110-pound championship at Saturday's Class 6A Region II wrestling meet after a Coppell wrestler forfeited the final. Beggs, a junior, is taking testosterone while transitioning from female to male.

Madeline Rocha's forfeit came 11 days after a lawsuit was filed against the University Interscholastic League by Coppell attorney and wrestling parent Jim Baudhuin, urging the governing body to suspend Beggs because of the use of the steroid. The suit claims that allowing the wrestler to compete while using testosterone exposes other athletes to "imminent threat of bodily harm." Baudhuin's daughter is not in the same weight class as Beggs.

Pratik Khandelwal, whose daughter also wrestles for Coppell, is named as the plaintiff and is bringing the case forward on behalf of his minor daughter and "other similarly situated female wrestlers" in the state, according to the suit. Khandelwal's daughter did not wrestle Beggs because they were in different weight classes this weekend.

Read more: http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/high-school/high-schools/2017/02/18/transgender-teen-wins-regional-wrestling-title-despite-attempt-ban-competing

[HoneyBadger]

1. That is beautiful

The haters got their due.

[Doodley]

2. Is that really fair?

[TexasTowelie]

3. Probably not,

but when the rules state that you are supposed to compete with the gender as of your time of birth then that is where the chips fall. It isn't fair for anyone, including the winner.

[HoneyBadger]

4. Absolutely

[Hangingon]

5. Didn't we disqualify Soviet and East German Olympians for dtugging