This story originally appeared on Them.
Women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe has long been an advocate for transgender inclusion in sports — and neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor AI-driven censorship can stop her.
In a July 13 op-ed for Marie Claire condemning anti-trans legislation passed under the guise of “protecting girls,” Rapinoe detailed a situation in which a brand allegedly pulled her from a World Cup advertisement after AI software used to highlight the “risk” of potential talent flagged the FIFA World Cup Champion. “Mine was that I spoke in support of trans rights,” she wrote.
“Anti-inclusion politicians have made the conversation around trans athletes in sports so muddied and full of false fearmongering that brands lacking moral clarity are running from mere association,” Rapinoe added.
The two-time Olympic medalist and two-time World Cup champion went on to argue that the conservative right’s attack on trans athletes — and weaponization of misinformation about athletic fairness — is a distraction from issues that cause harm to the very “women and girls” they claim to protect. The point is especially salient given the June 30 Supreme Court decision that left state-level bans on trans athletes in place. Rapinoe specifically pointed to abortion bans, attacks on access to reproductive healthcare, and other sexist laws as urgent forms of harm that are being ignored in the name of determining who is “girl enough” to play sports.
“The truth is, 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,” she wrote. “As with so many other manufactured issues we fall for, women and girls will suffer the most.”
Rapinoe cited a ballot measure from her home state of Washington as an example of the harm that happens to all girls when trans girls in sports are targeted. Slated for a vote in the November elections, Measure I-638 would require all girls to be medically certified in order to participate in sports teams, and could subject girls, but not boys, to invasive genital exams if passed into law. Despite droves of trans people relocating to Washington in search of a safe haven from anti-trans laws, Measure I-638 is one of the most extreme proposed trans sports bans yet.
“These laws are some of the most intense political assaults on LGBTQ+ people in recent years, and they are turning back the clock on our rights, including revived threats against marriage equality,” she concluded. “These policies make all girls and women less safe. They create new ways to question and control women and girls, and that affects all of us.”
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