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[May 2024] Oregon High School coach, John Parks, fired for writing letters criticizing the States rules on Transgender athletes
The head track & field coach at Lake Oswego High School said the district terminated his contract for writing letters to state officials advocating for change to laws pertaining to transgender athletes.
John Parks wrote two letters to Peter Weber, the Executive Director of the Oregon Student Activities Association, and state Sen. Rob Wagner before and after the state championships in May, respectively.
In the letters, Parks wrote that current state law, which protects athletes who wish to compete against the gender that aligns with their gender identity, compromises the integrity of girls' sports.
"The OSAA competition rules need to be aligned with what the rest of the world competes under," Parks wrote to Wagner, referring to hormone testing requirements enforced by the International Olympic Committee and other organizations. "My proposal to encourage transgender participation is to offer an open division that is so named so it doesn't identify or discriminate but offers an opportunity to participate."
Parks told KATU he supports transgender athletes and does not want them to be excluded. He said he witnessed the crowd at the State Championships 'boo' a transgender athlete after they won a girls' event.
"I want them to be able to participate where they're not 'booed,' Parks said.
He's recommending a separate division or that they can't do varsity sports.
Coach Parks is a hero. Listen.to his heartfelt testament of how Title IX's impact on his Sister helped inspire his own decades of coaching Girls' track—it speaks volumes that he's the kind of influence that transgenderists are hellbent on removing from the lives of Girls and young Women.
oh nice! Thanks i did not see that. She became a judge, but passed away 4 years ago (i was worried for a sec his sister would get some of this backlash). And as he explains, he has transgender identified people in his family. I really think, sports is the issue that will peak most people.
Especially in the U.S. and Canada, for reasons I wrote about at length here.