Oregon high school track coach fired for suggesting trans athletes should have their own category for competition: report

A track and field coach in Oregon says he has been fired after he wrote letters to state officials asking them to protect women’s sports from allowing males into competitions with girls.  

John Parks, who has been working at Lake Oswego High School for a little over a year, said that his contract for coaching the team was ended shortly after he started writing letters to the state and speaking out against males competing with girls in the sport, according to Reduxx.  

“The OSAA competition rules need to be aligned with what the rest of the world competes under,” Parks wrote to Oregon State Senator Rob Wagner in one letter. “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.” 

He added that including males in the competitions with the girls had sparked backlash with the crowds at track meets.  

Parks explained that he first wrote to the Oregon Student Activities Association about his concerns right before a video of the May 18 state championships went viral across social media showing trans-identified student Aayden Gallagher, who won the the Girls Varsity 200m in the championships, per Reduxx. The letter to Wagner came after the championships.

“I want them to be able to participate where they’re not ‘booed,'” he stated to local outlet, KATU 2.  

He said he does not want trans-identified athletes to be excluded, but to have them participate in a different way instead.  

When local reporters reached out to the school about the matter, Director of Communications at Lake Oswego School District Mary Kay Larson responded, saying, "We do not discuss personnel matters.” Parks is in the process of appealing the decision to terminate him from the position. "I'm going to fight now because I got wronged," he stated. "I ... am fighting for girls, I'm fighting for female sports, and I'm fighting that it be fair for everybody."