Megan Rapinoe: Real threats to women's sports are lack of resources, sexual harassment, not transgender athletes
Transgender athletes are not a threat to women's sports, U.S. women's national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe wrote in an op-ed published Sunday by The Washington Post.
Rapinoe's piece was in response to a slew of proposed legislation in various states that would prevent transgender girls from competing in girls' and women's sports at the youth and collegiate level, which she called "some of the most intense political assaults on LGBTQ people in recent years." In Mississippi, for example, Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has already signed into law a bill that requires the state's schools to divide teams based on sex assigned at birth.
Many advocates for similar bills say they are necessary to protect the competitive integrity of girls' and women's sports because transgender girls have a biological advantage over their peers. But Rapinoe, an athlete at the highest level of her sport, dismissed that notion. "These bills are attempting to solve a problem that doesn't exist," she wrote. "Transgender kids want the opportunity to play sports for the same reason other kids do: to be a part of a team where they feel like they belong ... As a woman who has played sports my whole life, I know that the threats to women's and girls' sports are lack of funding, resources, and media coverage; sexual harassment; and unequal pay."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The movement, Rapinoe continued, is cloaked in a "false sense of fairness," while its proponents continue to ignore "the actual needs of women and girls." Read the full op-ed at The Washington Post.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
LA-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line breaks ground
Speed Read The railway will be ready as soon as 2028
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel's military intelligence chief resigns
Speed Read Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first leader to quit for failing to prevent the Hamas attack in October
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescue
Speed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in Morocco
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female president
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. says
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprising
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstances
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governor
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published