In the 110-pound weight class of the Texas girls state wrestling championship, 17-year-old transgender boy Mack Beggs defeated his opponent and improved to 56-0 on the season. As soon as he hit the ground to celebrate his championship win, he was faced with not only cheers, but also boos.

The boos come from fans and people who believe that Beggs should not have wrestled against girls this year. They say he is cheating because of the testosterone he is taking and because he is a boy facing girls. People are blaming Beggs for that.

What people do not realize is that Beggs asked to wrestle against boys, but was declined. This was because of a law that Texas superintendents passed requiring student athletes to compete as the sex listed on their birth certificate, Beggs was given an ultimatum in the situation. He was told that he could either wrestle against girls, or quit wrestling. 

I do not understand why people are giving the young boy so much hate when he tried to wrestle against boys because he held an unfair advantage. People are saying he should have quit and not wrestled, but I cannot imagine making a kid quit his favorite sport because he is transitioning from female to male.

After many kids forfeited their matches to Beggs because of a fear of an unfair advantage, Beggs took to Facebook and said it is the parents and coaches who are making them forfeit, and the wrestlers still want to compete. 

“The thing is, we want to wrestle each other. I feel so sick and disgusted by the discrimination not by the kids, the PARENTS AND COACHES,” Beggs posted. “These kids don’t care who you put in front of them to wrestle. We just want to WRESTLE. THEY are taking that away from me and from the people I’m competing with.”

After getting so much hate, friends are trying to get the Texas state laws to amend and copy those of the NCAA, which allows kids who are transitioning from female to male and taking testosterone to compete in men’s teams but not women’s’ teams.

My point is that I do not believe Mack Beggs deserves to be hated on. If anything should be hated on, it is the rules that Texas has. If Texas allowed transgender teenagers to compete in the sex they have transitioned to, Beggs would be competing against boys, not forced to compete against girls. 

Beggs agrees that he should not have competed against girls, and that is why he asked to compete against boys. When he was rejected and given the ultimatum to either wrestle girls or quit, he did what anybody else in his situation would have done. He continued playing the sport he loved.

Another argument people are making is that he should not be allowed to compete because of the testosterone he is taking, which enhances his body.

The Texas Education Code and University Interscholarship League rules allow the use of steroids if they are “dispensed, prescribed, delivered and administered by a medical practitioner for a valid medical purpose,” the AP reported.

So anyone saying that he should not have competed due to him taking testosterone which enhanced his body to give him an unfair advantage should know that his medical records were reviewed and approved before he began wrestling against girls. 

No matter what, Beggs is going to be hated on by people who are transphobic and who believe that he is cheating by facing girls. That will not end. In my opinion, people should take that hate and the criticism they have for Beggs and turn it against the state of Texas, which allowed him to face off against girls and whose laws forbid him to compete against boys. Beggs does not deserve to be hated simply because he is following the rules, and it is the rules that force him to compete against the sex he is transitioning away from.