High School Track Coach Fired For Defending Women's Sports Shares His Story With Riley Gaines

John Parks, the now-former track and field coach at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon, was allegedly fired after writing two letters to high-ranking officials fighting for fairness in women's sports. Parks joined OutKick's Riley Gaines on the latest episode of ‘Gaines For Girls’ to provide more color on what led to his termination.

This situation centers around transgender student-athlete Aayden Gallagher - a biological male - who competes in girls' track and field in Oregon. Gallagher won a girls' event at the Oregon state championship in May and was booed by some in attendance. Parks coached two female athletes at Lake Oswego who competed against Gallagher. 

The former coach wrote letters to Executive Director of the Oregon Student Activities Association (OSAA), Peter Weber, and to state Sen. Rob Wagner urging them to create an "open" division for trans athletes to compete in. Parks is not against transgender athletes competing in sports as evidenced in a statement he shared to KATU saying "I want them (trans athletes) to be able to participate where they're not booed."

"The solution to trans athletes is to have an open category like a gender neutral bathroom," Parks wrote, in part, in his letters. "Allows competition opportunities but doesn’t make a mockery of the reason females compete in their own category."

In his sitdown with Gaines, Parks reiterated that he was in no way looking to keep transgender athletes off the track.

"In my dismissal, they were trying to use the words that I was trying to ‘stop’ them from competing. I never did that," Parks explained. "All I was advocating for was an open division that would allow competition so that the fans could cheer the transgender athletes separately and recognize and award their efforts, but not take away from the female athletes that were naturally born females who are in a whole different competition level."

READ: Change.org Petition Started For HS Track Coach Fired For Defending Women's Sports

Parks told Gaines that he had yet to receive a response for the letter he sent to the state, but went on to explain that two days after sending the letter, his athletic director at Lake Oswego told him that the state had received it, but that it "couldn't respond," insinuating the state did not want to face any backlash.

According to Parks, the athletic director and principal of the school agreed with Parks' letter calling for an open division, but they had to "be careful" with that opinion.

To put it simply, Parks believes that transgender athletes have every right to compete, but is also of the opinion that biological females should not be forced to compete against biological males. He expressed that opinion by standing up for his female athletes, and in doing so, lost his job.

You can watch Gaines' entire conversation with Parks here. Be sure to subscribe to ‘Gaines For Girls’ on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.