Watch this Texas sports anchor elegantly attack transphobic state laws

Stop making us cry, Dale.
 By 
Heather Dockray
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

It's not often that local Texas sports anchors—or any sports anchors, really—come to the defense of trans community.

Dale Hansen of WFAA-TV is a rare exception. Earlier this week, the reporter decided to address the case of Mack Beggs, a transgender wrestler who recently won his state girls' wrestling title. Though Mack identifies as a boy, state regulations require that he competes according to the sex assigned to him on his birth certificate.

Hansen thought this this was, frankly, ridiculous.

"Transitioning is a struggle I cannot imagine. It is a journey I could not make," Hansen said. "He needs our support, and he does not a group of old men in Austin telling him who to wrestle because of a genetic mixup at birth . . . He’s a child, simply looking for his place in the world and a chance to compete in the world.”

In 2014, Hansen came to the defense of gay players in the NFL with a similarly elegantly-worded, poignant statement: "I’m not always comfortable when a man tells me he’s gay; I don’t understand his world,” Hansen said. "But I do understand that he’s part of mine."

Watch and cry here:

The video has already received over one million views in less than a week.

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Heather Dockray

Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.

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