Virginia Film Festival

High school athlete Mack Beggs made national headlines in 2017 when he became the Texas girls wrestling state champion for the second time. Despite Beggs’ insistence that he should wrestle against other males, discriminatory Texas athletic rules force him to compete with female wrestlers instead. Many regarded Beggs’ fight against the prejudicial policy as heroic, yet the feelings of exclusion and intolerance from his own community still remained. Director Michael Barnett follows Beggs’ story, along with those of two other transgender high school athletes, to highlight the intimate struggles of the fight for trans rights in high school athletic programs across the United States. Introduction by Bonnie Hagerman (UVA)

This film is part of the LGBTQIA+ series presented by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and supported by the UVA Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the UVA Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights, and UVA Arts: supported by the Office of the Provost & the Vice Provost for the Arts