Male transgender wrestler Mack Beggs plans to fight Texas Republicans in court after they used his likeness in transphobic campaign ads.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) used an ad featuring 2018 footage of Beggs winning his second Texas University Interscholastic League women’s wrestling state championship. Under the footage, Cruz’s ad featured text saying that Cruz’s political opponent “Colin Allred failed to protect women’s sports, supporting boys competing with girls.” 

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Cruz did not get Beggs’ permission to depict him in the ad. The ad also failed to recognize that Beggs only competed against girls because of state policies forcing him into sports teams matching the gender listed on his birth certificate. Beggs had wanted to compete against boys.

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“The Republican Party messed up and they know what they’re doing,” Beggs told Lonestar Live. “You can’t just go around throwing around false narratives when this is literally what y’all asked for.”

He only became aware of the ad when people brought it to his attention. He plans to take action in court, and is talking with lawyers.

“I’m definitely going to take legal action,” Beggs said. “It’s a false narrative and defamation.”

Marc LaHood, a Republican candidate for Texas House District 121, also depicted Beggs in a similar ad without his consent. The ad implied Beggs was a cisgender boy.

“I’m not afraid of my name being known,” Beggs said. “I’m not afraid of my face being plastered everywhere. What I don’t appreciate is my story being told falsely and me being painted out to be someone that I’m not.”

He believes that Republicans are deliberately labeling him as either a cisgender man or a transgender woman as an attempt to defame him.

“They are spinning the narrative to continue to push the anti-trans agenda,” Beggs said. “My name was brought up 20 times in the (Texas) Senate when it came to first enacting the anti-trans athlete bills back in 2017. So, I think they are very much aware of what they’re doing.”

Beggs also emphasized that trans athletes of color are often subjected to similar scrutiny. “It’s not just me who is being attacked or trans athletes or trans individuals in general,” he said.

“That’s more important to me than me being trans,” Beggs said. “I think that if we continue to fight for marginalized groups as a whole, then myself and everybody in my community will as well win this fight.”

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