Former U.S. Women's National Team star Megan Rapinoe stated that efforts to bar transgender athletes from competing in women's sports constitute an "attack on women in society." Rapinoe, speaking on ABC's "The View," contended that the debate extends beyond fairness in athletic competition and is being used as a wedge issue to undermine women's empowerment.
"They're going after trans people in sports, and they're using this as a wedge issue because we love sports. And, you know, we don't want our little girls to be unsafe in sports. And it's like, ‘Unsafe from who? But okay,’" Rapinoe said. She suggested that the opposition is not solely concerned with protecting girls' or women's sports but is part of a larger campaign against women's advancement.
Rapinoe referenced a legislative initiative, Initiative IL26-638, which she described as requiring "all girls, just like full stop, to go through a sex test, an invasive, like examining their genitals to see if they're a woman." According to the House Republican Caucus, this bill would "prohibit students it defines as ‘biologically male’ from competing in certain school athletic activities intended for female students only" and would mandate verification of biological sex by healthcare providers.
"They don't like women in sports because it helps us with confidence and power," Rapinoe asserted. "And we see so many women in the C-suite played elite level sports. It's just great for you physically and all of it. But it's an attack on women in society."
In a Marie Claire article, Rapinoe wrote that "trans people have been competing in sports for decades, and will continue to participate as this smoke screen from bad faith legislators and anti-LGBT groups cloak the real damage being done. As with so many other manufactured issues we fall for, women and girls will suffer the most."