Megan Rapinoe slams critics of trans females in women’s sports, says jokes ‘directly leads to violence’

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe mentioned in a current interview that questioning transgender participation in ladies’s sports activities is dangerous.

Rapinoe talked about remarks made by tennis legend Martina Navratilova and ESPN anchor Sage Steele, who consider transgender ladies shouldn’t be competing in opposition to organic females in sports activities. Rapinoe additionally doesn’t respect comic Dave Chappelle’s jokes in regards to the situation.

“I don’t need to mince phrases about it,” Rapinoe informed Time journal in an interview revealed Monday. “Dave Chappelle making jokes about trans individuals instantly results in violence, whether or not it’s verbal or in any other case, in opposition to trans individuals.

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“When Martina or Sage or whoever are speaking about this, individuals aren’t listening to it simply within the context of elite sports activities. They’re saying, ‘The remainder of my life, that is how I’m going to deal with trans individuals.’”

Navratilova has been an activist for the homosexual neighborhood however has been against transgender ladies competing in opposition to organic ladies in sports activities.

In March, she applauded World Athletics for adopting a coverage to exclude transgender feminine athletes from ladies’s competitions. She known as it a “step in the best path.”

“Within the wake of World Athletics’ announcementI believe one of the best concept can be to have ‘organic feminine’ and ‘organic women’ classes after which an ‘open’ class,” she wrote in an op-ed in The Occasions of UK.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA HAS 1-WORD RESPONSE TO MEGAN RAPINOE’S REMARKS ON TRANS PARTICIPATION IN WOMEN’S SPORTS

OL Reign ahead Megan Rapinoe, #15, battles for the ball in opposition to Portland Thorns FC defender Natalia Kuikka, #14, and midfielder Sam Coffey, #17, within the first half at Lumen Discipline. (Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports activities)

Steele has expressed help for former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines for her advocacy to maintain ladies’s sports activities truthful. Steele declared that she stands with Gaines and known as what has occurred with trans individuals overtaking ladies’s sports activities “ridiculous,” “heartbreaking,” “troublesome to observe” and added the hashtag “savewomensports.”

For Rapinoe, she went so far as to say that she would “completely” settle for a transgender lady on the U.S. ladies’s nationwide crew.

“‘You’re taking a “actual” lady’s place,’ that’s the a part of the argument that’s nonetheless extraordinarily transphobic. I see trans ladies as actual ladies,” she mentioned. “What you’re saying mechanically within the argument—you’re type of telling on your self already—is you don’t consider these individuals are ladies. Due to this fact, they’re taking the opposite spot. I don’t really feel that method.”

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USWNT ahead Megan Rapinoe throughout Ladies’s World Cup media day at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports activities)

Rapinoe was one in every of 40 skilled athletes to co-sign a letter to House lawmakers in April in opposition of the Safety of Women and Ladies in Sports activities Act, arguing that the invoice would exclude ladies and women from getting “psychological and bodily well being advantages.”

Fox Information’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.