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Kaig Lightner, 36, is a Portland youth soccer coach who recently came out as transgender to his players. A video of the team meeting has gone viral.

(YouTube screenshot via Portland Community Football Club)

A Portland youth soccer coach recently came out as transgender to his players and a video of the team meeting has since gone viral. Kaig Lightner, 36, is the founder and director of the Portland Community Football Club, which serves the area's poor and underprivileged youth.

In the video, Lightner calls a huddle after practice, telling players about a coaching trip he took to Washington, D.C.

"We ask a lot of you guys to show up and be yourselves and be who you are and get to be better players and I haven't totally shared something with you about myself that's sort of important — that some of you may or may not know," he said.

Lightner then came out to his players, saying it was something he's kept close to the chest because of how sports have traditionally dealt with issues of gender.

"We have a lot of rules in sports about how boys play and how girls play and that's not really fair," he said. "I got told a lot of things about being a soccer player as a girl — that I couldn't do this, I couldn't do that. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't strong enough, or I was too strong — I acted too much like a boy."

Lightner told Buzzfeed News that he's been involved in youth sports since he was a teenager. He stepped down froma coaching position at 26 to begin transitioning. He told the outlet and his players that he felt a responsibility to come out in order to practice what he preached in his work.

"I may have this white skin and I may look like I just cruised through life with a lot of privilege — which I have had — but I have one thing that a lot of people don't know about me," Lightner said.

You can watch the full video below, which has gotten more than 35,000 as of Saturday evening and is titled "Authenticity":

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com