Cypress, Texas (
) — High school wrestler Mack Beggs walked out of the Texas sports complex with a smile on his face and a gold medal dangling from his neck. He had just won the University Interscholastic League (UIL) state girls’ championship, making him the league’s first transgender boy to win a state wrestling title.Beggs, a junior at Trinity High School in Euless, Texas, was born female and currently is transitioning to male. Despite the fact that he identifies as a boy, the league allows him to wrestle only against girls.
“I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my teammates,” he told reporters shortly after his win on Saturday. “We trained hard every single day and that’s what the spotlight should’ve been on — not me.”
Despite his best efforts to share the victory, he’s all that people want to talk about.
“It is what I am,” he told CNN. “I feel good about it. I feel happier. I feel content with myself.”
Beggs began to publicly identify as male five years ago, but didn’t start medical treatment to physically transition until October 2015, according to his mother Angela McNew.
‘He should be wrestling boys’
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