Megan Rapinoe, a member of the U.S.
women's national soccer team, is talking about her sexuality, saying
she's gay.
Rapinoe, 27, publicly discussed her
sexual orientation for the first time in an interview with gay glossy
Out.
“I feel like sports in general are
still homophobic, in the sense that not a lot of people are out,”
she said. “I feel everyone is really craving [for] people to come
out. People want – they need – to see that there are people like
me playing soccer for the good ol' U.S. of A.”
Rapinoe, a midfielder for the Seattle
Sounders Women, will represent the United States at the Olympics this
year.
She said no one in the media had asked
her about her sexuality.
“For the record: I am gay,” she
said.
Speaking to lesbian entertainment
website AfterEllen.com,
Rapinoe added that she had been out in her personal life.
“I've been out to friends and family
and teammates and anybody, if I hadn't really told them, [they] knew
that I was gay,” she said. “Even though I never lied about
anything. The world is sort of presumably straight, so I think I
wasn't wanting to be assumed [to be straight] or have people believe
that. I'm obviously very proud of who I am.”
“I think all of the reactions I've
gotten have been totally supportive and completely positive,” she
added.