HS track coach says he got fired over 'fighting for female sports' amid transgender athletes' dominance



An Oregon high school track coach said he got fired over "fighting for female sports" amid transgender athletes' dominance.

John Parks — the now-former track & field head coach of Lake Oswego High School — told KATU-TV the district terminated his contract for writing letters to state officials that pushed to change laws affecting transgender athlete participation.

'I'm going to fight now because I got wronged. I ... am fighting for girls, I'm fighting for female sports, and I'm fighting that it be fair for everybody.'

The station said Parks wrote two letters to Peter Weber, executive director of the Oregon Student Activities Association, and state Sen. Rob Wagner prior to and following May's state championships.

Parks' letters argued that state law, while protecting athletes who desire to compete in the gender categories that match their gender identities, compromises the integrity of female sports, KATU noted.

"The OSAA competition rules need to be aligned with what the rest of the world competes under," Parks wrote to Wagner in reference to hormone testing requirements the International Olympic Committee and other organizations enforce, the station said. "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."

During KATU's video interview with Parks — which you can view here — he said when it comes to championship events, which can determine athletic scholarships, transgender athletes "have an unfair advantage" in female competitions at the "highest level."

He's not anti-trans

Parks told KATU he was there in person when the state championship crowd booed a transgender athlete who won a girls' event.

"I want them to be able to participate where they're not booed," Parks added to the station, emphasizing that he supports transgender athletes and doesn't want them excluded.

More from KATU:

Mary Kay Larson, the Director of Communications at Lake Oswego School District, confirmed on Monday that Parks is no longer an employee of the district. She declined to explain why his employment, which started in Jan. 2023, ended. "We do not discuss personnel matters," she said.

Parks is now in the process of appealing his termination, and claimed the district's swift action stood against his ability to voice his opinion to state officials.

"I'm going to fight now because I got wronged," Parks added to the station. "I ... am fighting for girls, I'm fighting for female sports, and I'm fighting that it be fair for everybody."

CBS Sports signs women's MMA promotion Invicta FC to broadcast deal for 2024



CBS Sports is investing in women's mixed martial arts and will air events from the all-female promotion Invicta Fighting Champions throughout 2024.

The network deal is a landmark for the small promotion, which currently lists just one champion on its website. However, Invicta FC is known in the fighting world as the premier female MMA brand, getting its start in 2012.

It is owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment, a media company that also owns the Fight Network, GameTV, TNA wrestling, and AXS TV.

After parting ways with UFC Fight Pass in 2021, the promotion began airing its events on Anthem's networks. It will now move to the much larger platform under CBS. Five events will air on the network for the remainder of 2024, likely as a trial period, but it is unknown if the deal reaches into 2025.

"CBS Sports is the perfect partner for Invicta FC," President Shannon Knapp said in a press release. "By joining forces with their global platform, we're set to bring our world-class events to an even larger audience. 2024 will be a landmark year for us, packed with unparalleled matchups and title fights exclusive to Invicta," she continued.

"We are excited to showcase our world-class events and demonstrate why Invicta FC is the leading brand in women's MMA, giving fans around the world a front-row seat to the action."

'Big networks put women's sports on primetime TV to prove a point and bump their viewership up.'

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Professional fighter and BTC Fight Promotions Champion T.J. Laramie told Blaze News that the deal was likely a move to prove a point about women's sports.

"I personally don't even know anyone who watches Invicta, it's a subsidiary of a bigger company and most likely just taking a loss every year," he explained. "If big companies like Bellator were in the red, I can only imagine what they were."

"We're seeing this more and more with the PC culture," Laramie continued. "Big networks put women's sports on primetime TV to prove a point and bump their viewership up."

The first event to air under the new deal will be Invicta FC 55: Bernando vs. Rubin on June 28, 2024.

The card features Talita Bernando and Kay Hansen, both of whom have fought in the UFC.

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Male HS field hockey player fires shot into female opponent's face, and she's hospitalized. Riley Gaines, others are furious.



A male field hockey player from a Massachusetts high school took a shot during a Thursday game that slammed into a female opponent's face, and the female player suffered significant injuries as a result and was hospitalized.

As you might guess, Riley Gaines and other advocates for keeping males out of female sports are furious.

What are the details?

The injured female player is from Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School. The male player who took the shot is from Swampscott High School. The teams were in the third quarter of an MIAA Division 3 state tournament game with Swampscott ahead 1-0.

Video shows the male Swampscott player firing a shot toward the goal, but the ball instead hit a Dighton-Rehoboth player hard in her face. The ball ricocheted far from the point of impact, and the injured player fell to her knees and cried out — as did her teammates. A number of them turned their faces away after coming to her aid, and play was halted while the injured female player was treated.

As it happens, the male Swampscott player scored a goal soon after play resumed. In fact, he scored both goals for Swampscott, giving his team a 2-0 victory and eliminating Dighton-Rehoboth from the tournament.

It won't come as a shock that the male Swampscott player is reportedly a Northeastern Conference All-Star. He's also a four-year varsity player and team co-captain, WCVB-TV reported, citing Swampscott Public Schools Athletic Director Kelly Wolff.

What happened to the injured female player?

Dighton-Rehoboth's Superintendent Bill Runey said the injured female player was released from the hospital Friday but suffered "significant facial and dental injuries," the Sun Chronicle reported.

While Massachusetts scholastic rules allow males to play sports with females if there's no male team for that sport available — and vice versa — Runey penned a letter to his school district community that seemed to call the rule into question. Here's what he had to say, in part, according to WCVB:

While I understand that the MIAA has guidelines in place for co-ed participation under section 43 of their handbook, this incident dramatically magnifies the concerns of many about player safety.

In speaking with a representative of the MIAA this morning, she shared that the MIAA handbook has a legal note explaining how the Massachusetts Equal Rights Amendment makes the participation of males on female teams legal. I understand that the Mass ERA legislation is voluminous; and therefore, is very difficult to modify in total. However, seeing the horror in the eyes of our players and coaches upon greeting their bus last night is evidence to me that there has to be a renewed approach by the MIAA to protect the safety of our athletes. In years past, there were provisions in girls’ volleyball that, although boys could participate, they could not play on the front line because their ability to spike the ball created a higher level of risk. I have been told that those restrictions were deemed illegal and no longer exist. Athletics has come so far in the realm of safety, but the equipment and the training that our athletes are receiving in today’s day and age requires us to be more thoughtful about all of our rules and policies regarding safety.

Wolff emphasized that the male Swampscott player "has the exact same right to participate as any player on any team," the station said.

WCVB added a statement from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association that noted in part: "Massachusetts General Law was originally enacted to protect students from discrimination based on sex, and later expanded to protect students based on gender identification. As a result of this law, and consistent with the interpretive guidance offered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, athletic opportunities must be afforded to students in accordance with their identified gender, not necessarily their birth-assigned gender."

Riley Gaines isn't happy

Gaines — a staunch advocate for keeping males out of female sports — hit social media with a fury after finding out about the injured female player:

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Others were equally incensed:

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Zero House Democrats voted for a bill to protect female sports



A measure to protect female sports passed the House Thursday strictly along partly lines, with 219 Republicans supporting the bill and 203 Democrats voting against it.

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 would make it a Title IX violation to allow biological males to compete in female sports.

The text of the measure indicates that it would be a violation "for a recipient of Federal financial assistance who operates, sponsors, or facilitates athletic programs or activities to permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls." The measure also stipulates that "sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth."

The commonsense measure essentially has no chance of becoming law because the Biden administration has previously said that if it reaches the president's desk he will veto it.

"As a national ban that does not account for competitiveness or grade level, H.R. 734 targets people for who they are and therefore is discriminatory. Politicians should not dictate a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove kids from their teams," a statement of administration policy declared. "Instead of addressing the pressing issues that families and students face today—such as raising teacher pay, keeping guns out of schools, addressing the mental health crisis our youth face, and helping students learn and recover academically from unprecedented disruptions—Congressional Republicans have instead chosen to prioritize policies that discriminate against children."

The measure would need to clear the Senate in order to even reach Biden's desk.

The vote starkly illustrates the deep societal divide over the question of whether or not males who identify as women or girls should be allowed to compete in sports designated for females. The debate is ongoing worldwide and across various sports.

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Where Republicans Stand On Transgender Insanity Should Be A Litmus Test For Their Political Futures

Banning the butchering of children is a litmus test for the GOP and several Republicans including the Wyoming governor have failed it.

Passing The Equal Rights Amendment Would Hurt Low-Income Women The Most

Congress must reject this nightmare disguised as women's rights, for it hurts the very same people it pretends to protect.

Delano Squires: LeBron James, Serena Williams, activists athletes should publicly defend women athletes against transgender invasion



Professional sports have been completely taken over by politics. What started with athletes protesting during the national anthem and demanding team support for political causes has culminated in the leagues themselves using courts, fields, and jerseys to promote "racial equity" and major corporations weighing in on proposed state legislation.

Conspicuously absent from the list of causes worthy of increased awareness are the girls and women who have publicly opposed the inclusion of biological males in women's sports. State laws that attempt to restrict girls' sports to biological females have been characterized in corporate media outlets from USA Today to ESPN as attacks against transgender athletes. The Biden administration withdrew from a federal lawsuit in Connecticut that tried to limit participation in girls' sports to female athletes. The passage of the Equality Act by the House of Representatives early this year further demonstrates that the girls fighting for athletic fairness have as little support among elected officials as they do in corporate media or pop culture.

I find it fascinating that no professional leagues, high-profile players, or social justice activists have spoken up to say anything about how these changes will impact girls and women who have trained from a young age to compete at the highest levels. The WNBA has carved out a reputation for being very active in protesting racial justice causes, but it has been completely silent on an issue that could have a direct impact on the league. The same can be said for Jemele Hill, Serena Wiliams, LeBron James, and Megan Rapinoe. Each one has argued for using their platforms to speak for the voiceless and advocate for the marginalized.

This issue shows the limits of activism in sports. Players and sports journalists know that engaging in social justice causes, whether on or off the court, can improve their public profile as long as the issue is in line with the cultural zeitgeist. What's more difficult, and much less culturally rewarding, is to come out against a policy that many see as the latest frontier of justice for an oppressed group.

This type of selective activism is a sign of cowardice.

The most elite female athletes know that their male counterparts are bigger, stronger, and faster and that no amount of hormone therapy can totally eradicate those physical advantages. They are afraid of saying anything that would offend the transgender community or bring them criticism on social media. They sit by as girls suffer the public indignity of standing on the podium and smiling as a biological male walks away with medals and prize money that is meant for female athletes.

The left's radical views on sex and gender are the types of changes that destabilize societies. While they focus on race — which is literally skin deep — they completely ignore the long-term physical, emotional, and societal impacts of rejecting the body'snatural design and telos. People who think their bodies and minds are in conflict with one another need care and compassion, specifically because I believe that God created males and females equal in dignity and worth but different in composition and function. People who don't share my Christian convictions should at least trust science enough to know that while much of the public debate about gender identity focuses on what people feel and believe, athletics are largely an exercise in what the body can do. Thinking you were born in the wrong body doesn't change the physical advantages that body provides. Unfortunately, too few people are willing to acknowledge that fact. Activist athletes want to be seen as revolutionaries ushering in a new age of social equality. They're not. The only thing radical about them is their conformity to whatever opinions the cultural gatekeepers deem acceptable.

Now Megan Rapinoe Shifts her Attention to the Transgender Community

Now Megan Rapinoe Shifts her Attention to the Transgender Community

Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson Signs Bill Protecting Women’s Sports

Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a new law Thursday that prohibits biological males from competing in female sports.