USWNT legend Megan Rapinoe has been an activist for the LGBTQ+ community for years. Amid the renewed discourse over transgender athletes in women's sports following statements from Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham, Rapinoe has a message for everyone.
On the debut episode of her Why Are You Like This? podcast (a Vox Media podcast), Rapinoe accused Cunningham of contributing to the ongoing villainizing of transgender people through her embrace of activists such as Riley Gaines.
"If anybody is taking these talking points as legit - or believing they're protecting young girls in sports - I just have to ask: 'Are you serious?'" Rapinoe said. "I don't know Sophie so I can only project what I see about her beliefs based on her actions.
"And seeing a picture of her with Riley Gaines after the game told me everything I need to know about what's happening. Riley Gaines has made it her life's mission to exclude trans people from public life."
"Not Happening"
Rapinoe argued that the conversations about transgender athletes in women's sports are framed as protecting young girls from predatory men in WNBA locker rooms. She asserted that the reality is that all it's doing is excluding some children from playing in youth sports.
"This is where I think the accountability with having a major platform is extremely important, Rapinoe said.
"You can hear it, even in the language being used, that the root of trans exclusion is to protect young girls from men. To be clear, I would love to have that conversation and it's much needed in this country.
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"But it frames the conversation as if we're protecting young girls from men being in WNBA locker rooms. Not happening. It villainizes trans girls as if they're somehow magically older than their peers or are men - when in reality they are also young girls. These laws are excluding kids from playing youth sports.
"If we want to have a conversation around elite sports, there are effective policies that have been in place for many years that no one noticed because they worked."
Maybe she has a point. There isn't this wave of transgender athletes currently trying to get into the WNBA.
But people nevertheless see transgender athletes as an existential threat to women's sports.
