“I knew it would be good for them to see someone who they already respect and love be open about being transgender.”
Kaig Lightner, 36, is the founder and director of coaching for the Portland Community Football Club in Portland, Oregon. The only thing he loves more than soccer is sharing that passion with underprivileged youth in his community who also love the game.
The group aims to provide high-quality coaching and level of play for families and youth in Portland who can't afford the high cost of entry for other soccer leagues. Lightner also wanted to create a league where athletes, coaches, and families from the LGBT community felt not only accepted, but welcomed.
Lightner also happens to be transgender, a part of his life he had, until recently, not shared with the young athletes he coaches.
Provided to BuzzFeed
The moment he confided in his team about his gender identity was filmed by a fellow coach and later posted to YouTube. "Some of you may or may not know this, but I am transgender," Lightner can be heard saying in the video.
"I've been working with youth since I was a teenager," Lightner, who left a previous coaching job when he was 26-years-old to begin transitioning, told BuzzFeed News. "I couldn't even fathom telling the girls and their families that I was going to identify as a man and start taking testosterone, even though I had an out queer family on the team!"
After he returned to coaching, Lightner found himself in the unique position of not having to reveal anything if he didn't choose to do so. "I am incredibly lucky that my gender presentation now fits society's stereotypes of looking like a man," he explained. "I could easily never say anything. But I think it's part of my responsibility as a privileged white person to share my identity."