Megan Rapinoe offers scathing take on transgender athlete discourse: ‘Are you serious?’
· Yahoo Sports
Former U.S. women’s national team winger Megan Rapinoe was as heralded for winning World Cups as she was for unrelenting activism. She may have retired from soccer three years ago, but she’s more committed now to activism than ever. So, it’s only right that Rapinoe opened her premiere Why Are You Like This? podcast episode with a passionate monologue on the mistreatment of the transgender community.
For context, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham ignited the latest debate around transgender athletes when she spoke out against transgender athlete participation in women’s sports for this ESPN profile published July 21.
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Since then, multiple WNBA coaches and players have been asked to comment, including Fever All-Star Caitlin Clark and Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. It broke contain, and this week, reporters forced the issue on the likes of tennis stars Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka.
We’ll let Rapinoe take it from here.
“I don’t know Sophie, so I can only project what I see about her beliefs based on her actions,” Rapinoe said. “Seeing a picture of her with Riley Gaines after the [Fever’s game against the Minnesota Lynx] 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.”
“She’s directly tied to the Heritage Foundation, the authors of Project 2025 and, now, 2026, who have now published a report that suggests that they want to repeal Title IX. The very piece of legislation that allowed athletes like Sophie and myself to compete in sports. Sophie has claimed both to love trans people and support Title IX, and this is where the accountability with having a major platform is extremely important.”
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Rapinoe pivoted from Cunningham’s actions and comments specifically into a larger commentary on what’s wrong with the discourse overall.
“You can hear it even in the language being used that the root of trans exclusion is to protect young girls from men,” Rapinoe said. “To be clear, I would love to have that conversation, and it’s much needed in this country. 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 — 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. So, 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 has never shied from using her voice, but her voice should be even more prominent in discussions such as this one, as she launches Why Are You Like This? and takes the press circuit for her forthcoming Rapinoe documentary.
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