Soccer star Megan Rapinoe decided to weigh in on the debate over transgender participation in women’s sports last week by dismissing the issue as one big nothing burger.
“I’m 100% supportive of trans inclusion,” she said when asked whether men who identify as women should be allowed to compete against females.
“I would also encourage everyone out there who is afraid someone’s going to have an unfair advantage over their kid to really take a step back and think what are we actually talking about here. We’re talking about people’s lives. I’m sorry, your kid’s high school volleyball team just isn’t that important,” Rapinoe continued, adding that she doesn’t buy the allegations that transgender athletes are dominating women’s sports. “I’m sorry, it’s just not happening,” she said.
Except, it is happening, with much more frequency than Rapinoe would like to admit. Just a few months ago, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who competed on the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swimming team for two years before deciding to transition, won a title at the NCAA women’s swimming championship. His victory sidelined a number of other athletes, such as the University of Kentucky’s Riley Gaines, and prevented them from advancing to the final meets. And last week, 29-year-old male Ricci Tres, who served four years in the Navy before claiming to be a woman, beat a 13-year-old girl in a skateboarding competition after being allowed to compete in the women’s division. This was after Tres was rejected from competing in the Women’s Street USA Skateboarding National Championships because there was too much testosterone in his system.
For Rapinoe to act like this unfair competition doesn’t really matter is absurd. Let’s see her compete against one of the professional male soccer players and see how she performs. Even better, let’s have one of them switch gender identities and ask to be let on the U.S. women’s soccer team and see how long it takes Rapinoe or one of her teammates to get benched.
The fact is that Rapinoe directly benefited from the standards of equality that she now wants to deny other young women. They deserve the same chance to compete and win that she was given. So, yes, female volleyball, softball, basketball, swimming, soccer teams, you name it — they do matter, because women’s rights matter. Or should those be tossed aside as well?
