Megan Rapinoe reflects on playing for Team USA during Pride Month: 'Our team was super gay in 2019'

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a day ago

Team USA women's soccer great Megan Rapinoe is standing by what she said in 2019.
"You cannot win championships without the gays," she said to her wife, Sue Bird during their "A Touch More" podcast.
Rapinoe said something to the same effect during Team USA's Women's World Cup title run in 2019 after a quarterfinal victory over France, the host country of that year's tournament.
"Go gays!" Rapinoe said at the time, per The Guardian. "You can't win a championship without gays on your team – it's never been done before, ever. That's science, right there!
"I'm motivated by people who like me, who are fighting for the same things. I take more energy from that than from trying to prove anything wrong. That's draining on yourself. But for me, to be gay and fabulous, during Pride month at the World Cup, is nice."
It's Pride Month now, which brought about the question from Bird to Rapinoe about what it means to play during it.
"Our team was super gay in 2019," Rapinoe responded. "A lot of us were out, a lot of our fans were gay, a lot of the other players were gay. First and easiest thing to ensure you have is gay players on our team."
In 2019, Team USA had five players who were publicly LGBTQ players. Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris, two of the team's stars, were engaged at the time, while coach Jillian Ellis was also out.
That year, Outsports also reported that around 40 lesbian and bisexual players participated in the Women's World Cup compared to less than 20 in 2015.
Rapinoe aided Team USA's efforts in winning back-to-back World Cups in 2019, taking down the Netherlands, 2-0, where Rapinoe scored a penalty kick in the 61st minute to take the lead.
Rapinoe had six goals and two assists during five matches in that Women's World Cup, while scoring two goals and dishing out two assists in the 2015 victory.
Team USA wasn't able to make it three straight in 2023, as they were eliminated by Sweden in penalty kicks. Rapinoe made it known that the 2023 tournament would be her last World Cup, and while she wished it ended differently, she noted feeling "so lucky and so grateful to play as long as I have."
Off the pitch, Rapinoe has been outspoken, including after the 2019 victory where she said "I'm not going to the f---ing White House," while President Donald Trump was in his first term. She also told her Team USA peers to "think hard" about going to the White House before facing France in the quarterfinal, prompting Trump to tweet out "Megan should WIN first before she TALKS! Finish the job! We haven't yet…"
"Megan should never disrespect our Country, the White House, or our Flag, especially since so much has been done for her & the team. Be proud of the Flag that you wear. The USA is doing GREAT!" Trump added in his tweets at the time.
Rapinoe also commented on an earlier episode of her podcast with Bird after Trump beat former vice president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, saying she felt "overwhelmed" that he would be back in office.
"I think that I feel – not so much personally scared, because I think that we live in very progressive places, we're unbelievably privileged in our place in the world and life and financially and all of these things, but I think that fear extends to just people in general that will be really affected," Rapinoe explained to Bird. "I'm thinking of all my trans friends and people that I know and trans kids. I'm thinking about the potential of mass deportations if that is going to happen, and just like the general chaos that's going to be sown is really overwhelming."
In 2023 appearances with Team USA in her career, Rapinoe scored 63 goals and had 73 assists with her two World Cup titles. She also had 56 goals and 34 assists in her 13-year professional league in the WPS and NWSL.
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