Megan Rapinoe says she came out as
lesbian to help being gay “become something that's just normal to
everyone.”
The 27-year-old Rapinoe, a member of
the U.S. women's national soccer team and a midfielder for the
Seattle Sounders Women, publicly discussed her sexual orientation for
the first time in an interview with gay glossy Out.
In an op-ed published at ESPN,
Rapinoe said she is “very proud of who I am.”
“I've been thinking about it for a
while and decided it was the right time to speak up,” Rapinoe
wrote. “As athletes, we live our lives in the public eye and have
a platform to be positive role models. I'd like to help create more
tolerance and acceptance across the board. That means more people
talking about it, more people coming out and, at the end of the day,
making less of a massive deal about being gay. I'd like to see
homosexuality become something that's just normal to everyone.”
She added: “While the response to my
not-so-big news was entirely positive – I don't think I've heard a
single negative word – I still think we've got a ways to go. There
are a lot of female athletes who have come out and only maybe one
current male athlete who's out. Change is happening, as a lot of
male athletes are saying they would accept a gay man in the locker
room; hopefully that will work to break down the homophobia that's
seen even more often in men's sports than women's.”