Olympian Megan Rapinoe will be honored
later this month for her gay rights advocacy.
Rapinoe, a 27-year-old midfielder,
scored three goals and four assists for the U.S. women's team at the
2012 Summer Olympics held in London, England.
At the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's
41st annual gala and auction on Saturday in Los Angeles,
Rapinoe will receive the group's Board of Directors Award.
Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Estelle is scheduled to perform.
Rapinoe publicly announced her sexual
orientation shortly before heading to the Olympics.
In an interview with gay glossy Out,
Rapinoe said, “For the record: I am gay.”
“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.”
In comments to lesbian entertainment
website AfterEllen.com,
she 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.
(Source: laGayCenter.org.)