Women’s soccer legend Megan Rapinoe is ending her playing career but it doesn’t sound like her advocacy for transgender athletes is going to stop anytime soon.
The 38-year-old recently announced that she plans to retire from soccer at the end of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season. Before ending her NWSL career with OL Regin, she’ll try to help the U.S. women’s national team win its third straight FIFA Women’s World Cup championship.
Rapinoe recently sat down for an interview with TIME and wasn’t afraid to call out opponents of transgender rights over their hypocrisy.
“We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity,” said. “It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized. Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bull****. And show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening.
“The most amazing thing about sports is that you play and you’re playing with other people, and you’re having fun and you’re being physically active. We’re putting this all through the lens of competition and winning. But we’re talking about people’s lives. That’s where we have to start.”
Rapinoe then singled out some notable famous people who have been using their platform to speak out against transgender people and athletes.
“I don’t want to mince words about it,” she said. “Dave Chappelle making jokes about trans people directly leads to violence, whether it’s verbal or otherwise, against trans people. When Martina [Navratilova] or Sage [Steele] or whoever are 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.’”
[TIME]
