30 for 30 Shorts (2012–…): Season 8, Episode 2 - Mack Wrestles - full transcript

(dramatic music playing)

NANCY: You know, I told the coach,
I said, "I don't know how you did it.

I don't know what you did.

I don't know what had happened.

But I know you saved his life.

Because he wouldn't be here

if he hadn't--
if he hadn't started wrestling."

The coach just looked at me
like I was--like I was a crazy person.

He was like, "Oh."

You know, "I've got this grandmother
and she's nuts."

He said every once a while
a wrestler comes along that...



it defines who they are and what they are.

They buy into it as a way of life.

(nostalgic music playing)

(birds chirping)

MACK: I saw this poster
on the wall at school,

at my junior high and it was wrestling.

I was like, "Oh, I want my
name to be on there."

I'll be around in just a second, baby.

I went up there, and he was getting out,

and he got in the car,

and his whole demeanor was just like...

He just glowed.

He got in the car, I said,

"You stink horribly."



"What have you been doing?"

"Well, we've been wrestling."

(dramatic music playing)

(indistinct chatter)

(cheers and applause)

ANNOUNCER: Hey, everybody (indistinct)

(cheering)

Mack!

ANNOUNCER: (indistinct)

He just started crying (indistinct)

(cheers and applause)

(splashes)

(indistinct chatter)

MACK: I always felt different.

I didn't know what to call it.

I didn't know what to label myself.

I didn't know what to think.

-MAN: Go get it.
-WOMAN: Go, Mack, go.

I wanna do a flip,
but I'm afraid that I'm gonna die.

-(grunts)
-(water splashes)

(laughs) Oh.

I was a hardcore tomboy growing up.

I never thought anything
about Mack swinging in trees,

running with boys,
playing ball with the boys in the field,

instead of playing with the girls.

It never occurred to me
there was a problem.

(indistinct) where are you going?

Where are you going?

Where are you going?

Well, I kind of figured
something was wrong,

because I--I bought Mack a dress one time.

She wore it one time.

And that was it.

She always wore shorts, or pants,
or something like that.

So I was thinking, "You know,
there might be something going on here."

I've always accepted her the way she is.

I always had trouble...
I keep wanting to call her a her.

You know, she's always saying,
"Pronouns, granddad. Pronouns."

It's a feeling that no one can
really experience it unless you're in it

and being stuck inside of a body

that I wish I wasn't born in,

it's something that, you know,

not a lot of people can relate to.

And so, I didn't really
have anyone to relate to.

I didn't--I didn't know how to come
and talk about it,

especially to my grandmother
and then to my family.

NANCY: Mack was in grade school

and he was starting to cut himself.

He kept saying
that it made him feel better.

But he couldn't--he couldn't tell us
why it made him feel better.

In ninth grade
when he started wrestling...

it stopped.

It just stopped.

COACH: Hey, it's 5:30, wrestlers.
Let's go!

Start jogging.

Coach Phil's behind, let's go.

Don't roll your eyes, Bianca.

BIANCA: I didn't (indistinct)

MACK: I just thought that
wrestling would change me,

and then it did change me,
and then I thought to myself,

"Well, this is a good thing for me."

And so, I just stuck with it ever since.

(upbeat music playing)

SHAY: Well, me and him are like brother
and sister in the wrestling room.

Throw it.

I can't.

MAN: Knees together.

SHAY: At first, people were
a little iffy about Mack.

We had, like,
a meeting in the locker room.

He said that, "I go by he, not she."

People were just like,
"Oh, my God. You wanna be a boy."

And so, I was like, "No Mack is a boy,

not wanna be a boy."

MAN: Get your knees under you,
run your feet.

Again.

Good try, good try.

MACK: It did something for me
when I would just be on the mat,

and just be able to think,
and, just release it.

It has kind of saved me.

WOMAN: Let's go!

WOMAN: Come on, Mack.

-Yes.
-WOMAN: Double down.

Yeah, Mack!

NANCY: In order to get to wrestle,
he had to wrestle the girls.

You have to compete
under the gender you were born,

under with your birth certificate.

(waves crashing)

(insects chirping)

NANCY: To be a boy, know you're a boy,
feel you're a boy.

And yet your body's doing
the things that a girl's does.

It was like having your body as a traitor.

We started talking about it
and Mack said, "This is what I want.

I want to change my body.
I want my body to be who I am."

We went in and the doctor said,

"Let's start him on testosterone."

People told me that they see changes.

Hey, guys,
I missed my 10-month video update,

but this is my 10-month video update

and I hope you, like, see the changes.

I'm not going to hide that stuff.

This is me transitioning.

This is my life.

Hey, guys, this is what it sounds like
to be 11 months on T.

One year on testosterone.

NANCY: I didn't want Mack posting things
on social media,

because that's when
all the hate started coming out.

Bam, overnight all these people,

they have no idea what transitioning is.

Yeah. This is what it sounds like to be--

NANCY: So from that point forward,

every single tournament
was a big controversy.

It was like there was just this buzz,
you know,

"Did you know? Did you know?
Did you know?"

(crowd cheering)

NANCY: It was one of the first matches

that would start us
toward the state tournament.

When the wrestlers refused
to wrestle Mack,

it was apparently the parents
that forced her to forfeit.

It was almost like
the minute Mack stepped on the mat,

his clothes are gonna split
and he's gonna turn into the Hulk,

and he was... All of a sudden,
he was a danger.

He's not stronger than your daughter
because of his medicine.

He's stronger because he's working out.

A attorney enlisted some parents

to file a injunction against Mack,

to stop him from wrestling.

And I told--I told Mack, I said,
"It's gonna--it's gonna get really nasty."

A lot of national attention
is focused now on the legal effort

to try to stop
a transgender student athlete

from wrestling on the girls' team.

REPORTER: A junior on the Trinity
High School Girls' Wrestling Team,

Beggs is undefeated and headed
to state championships this weekend.

(drums music playing)

(indistinct chattering)

They have used something
whether it's for whatever reason,

it doesn't matter. It's here nor there.

They are using something.
They are stacked.

They are huge.

And it's not fair.

It's not fair. It's against UIL rule.

Why is UIL letting it happen?

(dramatic music playing)

MAN: Can you address some of the criticism
that Mack has an unfair advantage?

DR. JAMEY: The law is very, very specific

that a student who is being administered

performance-enhancing drugs by a physician

cannot be made ineligible.

REPORTER: The answer to the question,
when does a girl become a boy?

When does a boy become a girl?

When can you play games
against those you identify with

and not what a piece of paper
says you are?

That's way above my pay grade.

But someone has to find a better answer
than we're being given now.

Just wanna be a boy, wanna be a male.

She should wrestle with the boys
or whatever, but...

REPORTER: It sounds like she wants to,
but they won't let her.

I don't know. There's a lot of rules--

NANCY: It's kind of like--
kind of like a bad movie.

You're--you were in something
that you couldn't...

You had no control over.

(crowd cheering)

WOMAN: Let's go, Mack!

O'er the land of the free

And the home

Of the brave

(crowd cheering)

WOMAN: Let's go, Mack!

Let's go, Mack!

-(indistinct) Mack!
-WOMAN: Let's go!

(indistinct cheering)

WOMAN: Let's go, Mack, you got this!

On you, on you.

There was, like, five, six news people,
like, surrounding me.

I didn't wanna look at them,

because I was, like...
I just wanna stay in my zone.

And so, that's when my coach pulled
me off into the hallway

and he was like, "This is the plan,

you're... We're just gonna stick
in the hallways for now

and that's the game plan."

(dramatic music playing)

NANCY: He'd been working on getting...
On blocking anything that distract him,

blocking it out,
and I think a truly good wrestler does.

MACK: All the spotlight is on you.

And on that mat, my heart was racing.

My palms were sweating.

Everything was slow.

Everything that I have done
has led up to this moment.

(whistle blows)

(indistinct chatter)

WOMAN: Let's go, Mack! Let's go!

(indistinct)

there you go, Mack!

(whistles)

(indistinct chattering)

(whistle blowing)

(indistinct chatter)

WOMAN: Hey, Mack, you badass.

It was dripping off his face.

That is nasty.

Let's go, Mack! Let's go!

Yeah, almost there!

Let's go! Let's go!

(whistle blows)

(crowd cheering)

(cheers and applause)

MACK: As soon as I got my hand raised,

I could hear all the cheers and boos,

but all I heard was just, like, noise.

And then, the next thing I knew

I was just being dragged off,

back into the hallway.

I swear,
that's absolutely what it felt like.

Didn't really even feel
like a celebration.

That was the weird part.

REPORTER: At the Texas State
Girls' Wrestling Championship,

a transgender boy took the top medal.

WOMAN: You found yourself
not even on a Texas stage...

-Mack Beggs.
-Mack Beggs.

Seventeen-year-old Mack Beggs.

...not even on a national stage.

-REPORTER: Mack Beggs.
-Mack Beggs.

Many of the audience feel
Beggs has an unfair advantage.

...but on an international stage.

REPORTER: (speaking foreign language)

REPORTER: (speaking French)

WOMAN: Literally the whole world
was watching you.

If somebody wants to transition into a boy
or transition into a girl, great.

But maybe that means
you have to give up the wrestling,

that you can't have everything.

The only thing that you accomplish
by doing what you say is traditional,

is that you scar these kids as an other.

(dramatic music playing)

Were you aware that Mack Beggs

was asking to compete
in the boys' division,

not the girls' division?

I'm not really familiar
with the details of that case.

The effect of this bill will result

in transgender students
not being able to participate in sports.

That has nothing to do with this bill.

This bill has to do
with an individual's use of steroids.

WOMAN: Are you ready?
Let's see (indistinct) here we go.

If you had your way,
would you wrestle boys or girls?

Boys.

MARCO: No, Mack, pull your leg up.

-House of the rising sun.
-House of the rising sun.

That means we rise every morning,

when we see the sun,
we think of each other.

Do you wear that?

I'm proud of Mack.

He's a man. He's 19, he just graduated.

You all think he's a two-time state champ?

You haven't messed with me.

Right, Mack?

NANCY: Yeah.

Yeah.

MARCO: After graduation,
I thought for sure

maybe they'd say... And also in our midst,

we have a two-time...

-No. It--I wouldn't--
-...state champion wrestler Mack Beggs.

I wouldn't--I wouldn't want--no.

I wouldn't want--I wouldn't want to.
I wouldn't want.

Okay. I just thought
maybe they'd acknowledged you.

-You really wanna know why?
-Why?

Because I really don't feel
like I deserve it.

Wow. That's a strong statement.

I'm being serious.

Like, yeah, I feel--like I--
like, I won the state title like,

"Yeah, that's true. That's inevitable."

-But I--
-You won two of them in a row.

-Obviously, but--
-Undefeated.

Obvious--obviously--listen,

but if you were to go against a girl

in the girls' tournament,
how would you feel?

Would you feel like you deserved it?

-But you were--
-No. Listen,

would you feel like you deserved it?

(dramatic music playing)

(indistinct chatter)

He’s coming with it, there it goes.

MAN: There you go, jack it up.

Know where you're at, Mack.
Know where you're at. Yeah. There you go.

MACK: The national team is, like,
the college level in the Olympic level.

You compete as what you identify as.

NANCY: He did great in
the tournaments he went to,

against the guys.

WOMAN: Turn again, Mack. Turn again.

WOMAN: Come on! You can do this!

Come on, Mack.

NANCY: (indistinct) He needs this.

Yeah!

And he qualified.

I mean, just--you know, after being
on the girls' team all this time,

he qualified for boys.

He wants to win.

And this will be my first time, actually,
competing, like, on the national team,

for Team Texas on boys side.

And I'm not nerve-racked by it,

but I feel like I do have
something to prove.

(indistinct chatter)

MACK: My entire life I've competed
on the female team

except for one I was in T-ball.

A national team, is like--
it's like a game changer,

and it... You have to mentally
be prepared for it.

And I was mentally prepared for it.

Before Mack,
I had not met anybody like that, so--

(dramatic music playing)

JOHNNY: On the national team,
it's because you're representing Texas,

everybody there wanted to prove
they were the best.

Mack puts in the same work we do.

There's no reason why,

you know, he has to be treated
any differently.

Sometimes, like,
they'll have to go with Mack,

and they're not, like, excited.

I’d hope they go the same--

you know, I can't really talk
for other people,

but I mean,
I think they'll go the same with him.

MACK: One day after one of the camps,

coach was saying something about,
"Have you been binding?

Because, like,
some of the guys are complaining

that it's hard to wrap around your chest."

"Are you asking me"...

(sighs)

I don't--I don't know.

I was like, "If a dude
is really having that much trouble

to wrap their hands,

their arms around
my Itty Bitty Titty Committees

that are still stuck to my chest,
then we got some issues."

No one has ever came to me
and addressed that specific issue to me,

which is I find really weird.

Someone's just saying crap to just say it,

because... I don't know.

So, I don't know.

(insects chirping)

Yeah.

I got kicked off the national team.

Why? I heard about that.

Because I missed practice.

The first one, because I had to go to work
at 2:30 on a Monday,

and then I asked Coach Ray
to send me a time,

he never sent me a time,
so I missed the 8:00, the 12:00.

And then coach called me, he was like,
"Why are you missing your practices?"

And I was like, "I have work at 2:30.

I don't know what to do
(indistinct) Coach Ray that..."

SHAY: I think he would like to talk about
what happened,

but I feel like Mack
is just building a brick wall.

(dramatic music playing)

NANCY: Right after it all happened,
he got real quiet,

didn't want to discuss it.

That concerned me a little bit.

But I knew why.

Before he would talk to me,
and dealt with it with me,

he had to deal with it with himself,
and I understood that.

There's always more you could do,

just a little more, just a little more.

You could always do a little more.

But I guess I didn't.

That's the sad part.

I mean, you could always do a little more,
but I guess I didn't do enough.

Like, trying to do everything
like with... you know.

(dramatic music playing)

MACK: In wrestling,
when you're at your weakest,

that's when you need to be
at your strongest.

In that last 30 seconds,
you're feeling weak,

you can't breathe.

You feel your muscles aching.

You got to get back up.

WOMAN: Please don't fall off.

MACK: Try not to.

WOMAN: I'll probably (indistinct)

NANCY: Okay. Look at it this way,
you're a pioneer on a new frontier

and you're gonna have to blaze
some trails.

-So...
-MACK: Yeah, I know.

-NANCY: ...just suck it up.
-MACK: That's what I thought.

-That's why I have a (indistinct)
-Suck it up and deal with... You know,

you just... If you're--
if you're gonna be a trailblazer,

you've got to be willing
to take the criticism,

and take the negativity, and educate.

MACK: I knew what it was about.

NANCY: How'd you know what it was about?

Because you've been hiding it from me
and I knew it would come in.

You're not slick.

-Are those the papers?
-These are papers.

Now, there's some things you need to sign.

I think Mack is gonna be okay.

I think he's gonna change
some things for some kids

in a good positive manner.

And I think it's gonna follow him
all the way through college

and into adulthood.

Have you ever been charged
with a Class A Misdemeanor felony?

Nope.

"I believe that my name change
and sex gender marker change

are in my best interest."

-MACK: Well, can I just do it?
-NANCY: No, you can't do it.

I need to get your thumb on there.

You take it and roll it, one time.

Your right thumb is right there.

-Do I need both of them?
-Yeah, you will.

We met kids from other parts of the state

that are transgender,
but they won't come out.

Because they're afraid to, they're afraid
that they won't be able to participate.

And I don't wanna see that,
Mack didn't wanna see that.

And I told Mack, I said,
"If we can get the battle started,

we can get more people."

I've been through this before.
I know what we have to do.

I know the fight we're gonna have
and it's gonna be...

Sometimes it's gonna be good,
sometimes it's gonna be nasty,

but I can fight nasty.

I've done it before, I can do it again.

(dramatic music playing)

MACK: I wish I was just like labeled
as just like my name,

instead of, like,
being the transgender wrestler.

I mean, it is what it is.
I can't really change it.

I mean, life and social media
is gonna do what it's gonna do.

But, I mean, sooner or later,
it's just gonna be like Mack Beggs.

I can't wait for that day to happen.

(indistinct chatter)

MAN: What's up?

(indistinct chatter)

MAN: Now listen...

If you're gonna break somebody
make it (indistinct)

(dramatic music playing)