Megan Rapinoe insists that she would welcome male-born transgender players in women’s soccer, but Riley Gaines is having none of it.
Gaines accused the U.S. soccer star of undercutting women’s sports with her comments ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in favor of allowing biological males who identify as female to play on the women’s team, even if they displace women.
Asked whether she would “embrace a transgender woman on the U.S. women’s soccer team, even if that woman took the place of someone assigned female at birth,” Rapinoe replied, “Absolutely.”
“’You’re taking a “real” woman’s place,’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic,” Rapinoe said in a Monday interview with Tim magazine.
“I see trans women as real women,” she said. “What you’re saying automatically in the argument — you’re sort of telling on yourself already — is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way.”
As far as Gaines is concerned, however, that’s easy for Rapinoe to say.
Gaines did compete against a biological male – Lia Thomas – at the 2022 NCAA Division I women’s swimming championships, where they tied for fifth place.
The NCAA gave the trophy to Thomas and sent Gaines a replica in the mail.
Rapinoe “is actually someone who fought for women in sports,” Gaines said Monday on Fox News Channel. “She fought for equal pay, she fought for equal access, equal resources, all of those things in comparison to the women’s U.S. national soccer team to the men’s, and now she is undermining her fight entirely.”
Gaines said the 38-year-old Rapinoe, a two-time World Cup winner who plans to retire at the end of the National Women’s Soccer League season, is engaged in a “classic case of virtue-signaling.”
“She wants to be seen as kind, she wants to be seen as inclusive, but it is not inclusive what she’s fighting for. It’s actually exclusive,” Gaines said. “It’s exclusive to the very female athletes the women’s sporting category was created to protect.”
She added that “it’s not kind to ask a girl to undress in front of a man in a locker room. That is the exact opposite of kind.”
There’s a lot to admire about @mPinoe but her insistence that trans athletes don’t damage the integrity of women’s sport makes a mockery of her claim to be a campaigner for equality. https://t.co/7zqs9Qzv4c
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 10, 2023
The issue of fairness versus inclusion in women’s sports has divided some of history’s top female athletes.
Rapinoe and Billie Jean King have come out in favor of allowing male-born athletes who identify as female in girls’ and women’s sports, pitting them against legends such as Martina Navratilova and Nancy Hogshead-Makar.
Rapinoe accused critics of weaponizing the issue of transgender athletes in female sports.
“It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized,” she said. “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.”
That response stunned Fox News Channel host Piers Morgan, given the growing uproar over male-born athletes in sports including women’s swimming, track and field, golf, powerlifting, cycling, archery, volleyball, and disc golf.
“This is happening in almost every sport in the world. Why is Megan Rapinoe not aware of this? Is she walking around with a blindfold?” he asked.
Replied Gaines: “She must be, because my story’s not unique. It’s happening in every sport, every division, every level, and every state, all across the world really in every country.”
“To deny that is entirely disingenuous. It blows my mind,” Gaines said. “I could list 100 examples, seriously, off the top of my head. And me being in the position that I’m in, using my platform for this, I get those messages all the time, whether it’s email or direct message from parents, athletes, coaches, who feel silenced.”
Gaines, a spokeswoman for the Independent Women’s Forum, will debut her “Girls for Gaines” podcast Wednesday on the right-tilting sports outlet OutKick.
A 12-time All-American swimmer, Gaines unveiled her podcast by challenging Rapinoe to a debate on the issue of fairness and inclusion in female sports, saying that the soccer star would have a different opinion on the issue if she had been displaced by a male-born athlete.
U.S. women’s soccer players have long ranked among the best in the world, but they have struggled in games against male players.
In 2017, the U.S. women’s national team famously lost 5-2 to the FC Dallas U-15 boys’ team in a 2017 scrimmage match. Last month, a squad of former, current and guest men’s players from Wrexham AFC cruised to a 12-0 victory over ex-U.S. women’s team members, according to CBS Sports.
Rapinoe and the rest of the U.S. women’s soccer team open their bid for a World Cup three-peat July 21, playing Vietnam in their first group game in Auckland, New Zealand.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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