USWNT star Megan Rapinoe has been making major waves with comments she made about transgender women.
Rapinoe was asked about transgender athletes in women’s sports in a recent interview with Time magazine. She stated lawmakers were “trying to legislate away people’s full humanity” and said she would accept a transgender woman replacing a biological female on the U.S. national team.
Rapinoe also called comedian Dave Chapelle, ESPN anchor Sage Steele, and 18-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova. She believes they’re somewhat to blame for violence against transgender people.
“I don’t want to mince words about it. Dave Chappelle making jokes about trans people directly leads to violence, whether it’s verbal or otherwise, against trans people. When Martina or Sage or whoever is talking about this, people aren’t hearing it just in the context of elite sports. They’re saying, ‘The rest of my life, this is how I’m going to treat trans people,’” Rapinoe told TIME.
ESPN’s Sam Ponder thought that was truly unfair for Rapinoe to blame those three individuals for the way the transgender community is treated.
“Sage says bio males shouldn’t compete in female sports and now she’s to blame for violence? This is an attempt to silence good-faith discussion and debate,” Ponder tweeted. “Disagree passionately, say she’s wrong (& why)… but to claim she is responsible for violence is absurd.”
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Back in March, nine-time Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova applauded World Athletics for adopting a policy to exclude transgender female athletes from women’s competitions.
Rapinoe, on the other hand, was one of 40 professional athletes to co-sign a letter to House lawmakers in April in opposition to the Protection of Girls and Women in Sports Act, arguing that the bill would exclude women and girls from getting “mental and physical health benefits.”
Rapinoe will make her final World Cup appearance this month as the United States Women’s National Team heads to Australia and New Zealand with the hopes of making history by becoming the first women’s or men’s team to win a three-peat.
