{"id":409005,"date":"2026-01-14T16:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409005\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:32:10","slug":"how-one-youth-soccer-club-is-including-trans-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/409005\/","title":{"rendered":"How one youth soccer club is including trans kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of January 2026, at least half of U.S. states<\/a> have laws barring transgender student-athletes from participating in school sports under the guise of competitive fairness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Advocates of sports equity show that there are no competitive advantages \u2014 especially among pre-pubescent children and teens \u2014 for athletes who identify as trans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet discriminatory laws have led to lower sports participation among young trans athletes \u2014 and have become a catalyst for harassment and intimidation of trans youth, who make up 1.4% of young people ages 13 to 17<\/a> in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And these negative consequences can impact even the most \u201cjunior\u201d of leagues.<\/p>\n

Portland Community Football Club<\/a> founder Kaig Lightner, a 44-year-old trans man, organizes youth soccer teams based on skill level, instead of sex or gender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PortlandKaig Lightner, founder of PCFC, speaking at an event.\u00a0Photo courtesy of Portland Community Football Club<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen looking at this particular way of structuring sports, the kids themselves let go of the binary ideas of how girls play and how boys play,\u201d the Oregon-based coach told The Guardian<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had boys say to me, \u2018I thought girls couldn\u2019t play soccer, until I started playing here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One PCFC parent told The Guardian that it was a life-saver for his trans daughter, who was originally told she\u2019d have to join a boy\u2019s league if she wanted to lace up her cleats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PCFC offered her a safe spot on the team \u2014 and a jersey with a Pride flag on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring her first soccer game she couldn\u2019t even really run normally because she was squealing and skipping with joy down the field,\u201d the parent said. \u201cIt\u2019s the happiest I\u2019ve ever seen her.\u201d<\/p>\n

PCFC welcomes players ages six to 18, so long as they promise to accept their fellow teammates.<\/p>\n

The organization is also dedicated to making sports more financially accessible to all young people, moving away from a \u201cpay-to-play\u201d model and instead getting support from partner organizations at the local and national level.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo PCFC\u00a0teammates chat on the sidelines. Photo courtesy of Portland Community Football\u00a0Club<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often, youth and families are forced to step away from organized and competitive sports because of the high costs associated with the pay-to-play model,\u201d PCFC shares on its website<\/a>. \u201cThis system hinders progress toward creating more accessible, diverse, and inclusive spaces when young people and their families are unable to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club also offers \u201cwrap-around\u201d services, including a food pantry, language translation services, and rides to practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccess grows when access is open, belonging is universal, and opportunities are shared,\u201d PCFC\u2019s website concluded.<\/p>\n

By inviting diverse players into one space, experts say, PCFC makes a real, positive difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen sports put together these positive relationships that help make us feel safe and practice being stressed but being able to deal with that stress, you\u2019re truly building resilience in the biological definition of resilience,\u201d said Megan Bartlett, founder of the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport<\/a>, and an expert in trauma recovery among children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this country \u2026 making sports more accessible to these groups is a public health imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kids playing sports don\u2019t realize how vital it is \u2014 they are simply delighted to have a place where they can be themselves, trust their bodies, and run free.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we signed her up, nobody batted an eye. It felt normal,\u201d the PCFC parent said. \u201cAnd on the field, she\u2019s just a kid who gets to be on a soccer team, who gets to play soccer with other kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200d<\/p>\n

You may also like: Trans vs. cisgender rugby match protests athlete bans through friendly competition: ‘We want you on our team’<\/a><\/p>\n

\u200d<\/p>\n

A version of this article was originally published in The 2025 Sports Edition of the Goodnewspaper<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u200d<\/p>\n

Header image courtesy of Portland Community Football Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of January 2026, at least half of U.S. states have laws barring transgender student-athletes from participating in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-409005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}